Following the death of her father, Amanda seeks out her long estranged mother, who at their first meeting confesses to having killed two men in retribution to the assassination of her sister, the popular writer K.Penza back in 1986. Before she knows it, Amanda finds herself drawn into the incumbent darkness that has marred her family history as she tries to come to terms with the scars of the past.
Young Theo is sent on his first trip with his Maltese sea faring family, but things go terribly wrong when the 'Simshar' sinks, leaving the crew stranded in the Mediterranean... Simultaneously, Alex - a medic reluctantly dispatched onto a Turkish Merchant vessel which has rescued a group of stranded African boat people between Malta and Italy - gets stuck on the boat as the countries wage a bureaucratic war over who should take in the migrants... The stories unravel in parallel and culminate tragically when the fishermen are traced down, but by that time there's only one survivor.
Famous crime writer Randy Williams spends the night with a gorgeous stranger he just met at his latest book signing. Back home he found his wife murdered and is soon suspected as his attractive date has now vanished.