Jason Foster III, basketball star in a wealthy seaside community, hangs himself I the high school gymnasium. For the sake of all others in his school, Dr. Harold Martin, the principal, feels compelled to find out why. This is a seaside town where yacht club members paint over rust before selling their boats, and where home builders swap techniques for concealing structural flaws. Because Hal thinks teen suicide may be avoided by facing the rust, wrinkles and flaws in everyone, he investigated Jason's Suicide and uncovers far too much at great personal risk. But he can't stop.