By invitation only, nine guests board the Black Orchid for its maiden voyage through the Aegean Sea. Not all of them will survive. Poppy Buchanan, personal assistant to legendary war photographer Lillith McGregor, sees the cruise as her chance at a better life-if she can edge her way into Lillith's will. But their exclusive company includes Lillith's disinherited stepson and his ruthlessly ambitious fiancée, a silent Israeli businessman with a dangerous past, a charming Dutch antiquities dealer with an agenda of his own, and a retired FBI profiler hunting a serial killer he believes is aboard. Each passenger is a piece in a deadly puzzle decades in the making. Within three days, their paths will collide during a catastrophic storm. Longburied secrets surface. Masks fall away. And the ensuing revelations trigger a chain of events that leads to one of the most devastating maritime disasters in recent history. But the sinking of the Black Orchid is no accident-it's a reckoning.