Midsummer Eve 1670. At a shabby warehouse near the River Thames, James Avery seeks out his long-ago lover Alinor to obtain the one thing his money cannot buy—his son and heir. A widow also arrives, claiming Alinor as her mother-in-law, and that Alinor's son Rob has drowned in the dark tides of the Venice lagoon. In this follow-up to Tidelands, Alinor writes to her brother Ned in faraway New England, voicing her suspicions that her son is alive and the widow is an imposter; the mystery of it all, however, is just beginning.

"Gregory's talent for evoking time and place is on full display."—Publishers Weekly