When Florida resident Emma Daniels delivers what she believes to be a note from a gallery owner to a local artist, the message turns out to be a ransom note. Emma insists on contributing to the amount demanded for the safe return of the young painter's grandmother. The artist's body washes ashore only hours after the ransom is delivered and, in the course of looking for clues to the elderly woman's whereabouts, Emma discovered she's been played in a con game, the only real parts being the body on the shore and the fact that somebody wants Emma dead, too.