Nothing foreshadows the shambles into which the lives of four women of very diverse ages and backgrounds are thrown when their husbands' chartered plane vanishes in the Amazon jungle. Stunned by the disappearance, along with the news that the pilot neglected to file a flight plan, the wives band together, attempting to track the men on their catastrophic trip and discover whether they are dead or alive.

Looking for company records that will tell them more about their husbands' partnership, a venture that has won a bid to design a satellite tracking system over the Amazon Basin for the Brazilian government, the three women are baffled by the discovery of a cache of alexandrites in a previously unknown safe deposit box. The appearance of these rare gemstones, as valuable as diamonds, is the first hint of the clandestine lives their husbands were leading.