Cape Cod artist Owen Langbroek receives a letter from Greece, a lawyer notifying him that he has inherited a house on one of the islands. The house belonged to his father, a man who vanished when Owen was small, never to be seen or heard from again. Owen travels to the island to see the house and there he finds a journal written by his father. As he becomes involved in the details of daily life among the island's Greek and ex-pat community, Owen reads the journal and begins to know his father. One of the main characters in the journal was the great love of his life. Another is still living on the island, a scam artist who involved his father in various illegal schemes and now challenges Owen's rightful ownership of the house. Eventually the two stories begin to knit together as Owen makes some startling discoveries that force him to step into his father's shoes, confront their shared enemy and unravel the mystery of his desertion.