"Marine biologist Doc Ford has been known to help his friends out of jams occasionally, but he's never faced a situation like this. His old pal Carl Fitzpatrick has been chasing sunken wrecks most of his life, but now he's run afoul of the Florida Division of Historical Resources. Its director, Leonard Nickelby, despises amateur archaeologists, which is bad enough, but now he and his young 'assistant' have disappeared--along with Fitzpatrick's impounded...

A category four hurricane whips West Florida, destroying homes and taking lives. The storm thrashes reefs and buries known shipwrecks--but it also exposes new ones. Then one night a stranger shows up at Doc Ford's laboratory. The elderly visitor relays an amazing story of her lover lost at sea during World War II while attempting to contact a Nazi submarine. The woman is sure he was being blackmailed--and now the truth may finally be within her grasp....

Doc Ford is in New York with former British agent Sir James Montbard, awaiting the arrival of an attractive U.S. senator with whom Ford has become more than friendly; as her car pulls up an abduction attempt unfolds before their eyes.

During a dive in a remote Florida lake, the rim of a cave collapses, trapping two of Doc Ford's friends. Ford himself manages to escape, only to surface and find two men waiting for him on the shore. Murderers and ex-cons, the men are intent on diving to the bottom of the very deep lake and uncovering the remains of a legendary plane wreck there, supposedly loaded with Cuban treasury gold. Ford's expertise is just what they need.

Fifteen years after a young girl unearths an ancient gold medallion and then mysteriously dies, Doc Ford investigates strange occurrences at the girl's home and concludes that a dangerous person is determined to find the medallion.

Doc Ford's goddaughter Shay, who had been thrown a wild bachelorette party by her bridesmaids, receives a note from a blackmailer wanting money for a secret videotape of the party; Ford makes the exchange of money, but the blackmailer, a woman, is just getting started with her plan.