Ex-Marine Acton Sanderson, the local sheriff, lives in one of the converted missile towers on Boatswain Island, home to America's first missile site. Older and newer entangled families with secrets produce their own virtual Tower of Babel. Acton has to let Suelima Pardee know that her older sister, Charlotte, who runs the Silver Mullet Pier and Motel founded by their father, has had a breakdown. By the time she interrupts completing her doctorate...