Six months out of high school and just days after finishing Marine boot camp, Jesse McDermitt is finally ready to unwind and have a little fun when he goes home on leave.

But everything Jesse remembers?his friends, his family, the sparkling beaches and familiar waters of the Caloosahatchee River and Pine Island Sound, even his faithful Lab, Molly, have all changed.

Only when he reunites with a boot camp buddy to explore the reefs of the Florida Keys and the oddly relaxing shallows of the backcountry does Jesse finally understand that it was he, himself, who had changed.

The two young men, enjoying life in paradise while on boot camp leave, soon find out that there are still pirates in those tropical waters. Only their galleons and corsairs have been replaced with offshore racing boats and motorcycles.