Publisher's Synopsis
Col. Tyler French, recently retired from the army and divorced from his wife in California, comes east and buys a concrete house on a Carolina barrier island. He hires a local girl to help him make it livable, and negotiates with the local backhoe operator to build a seawall to protect it against beach erosion. A history professor neighbor befriends Tyler and introduces him to the small, isolated beach community, the center of which is a lowlife bar owned by the backhoe man. As Tyler and the girl work together, he learns she has run away and is hiding from her oppressive preacher husband. A friendship blossoms into much more. The husband tracks her and takes her away while a hurricane bears down on the island, leaving Tyler distraught and in danger.
