On a warm summer evening, on an island off the coast of Maine, five teenagers, jump off a dock to go scuba diving. Four come out alive: Dede St. John, a beautiful young artist Whitney Chapin, a preppy, thoughtless young man Talbot Harrington-Clark, heir to a significant fortune And Sport Abbott, whose parents dream of marriage between their daughter and Talbot. In the guilt-ridden years that follow, each one of the supervisor pays for the thoughtless moment. Nine years later, returning to her beloved Ledge Island to spend a year writing her doctoral thesis. Sport must learn to live a neighbor with the parents of "Nevah" Wright, the teenager who came up dead that summer night. Sport also meets the new island doctor, Steve Schwartz, who carries a load of his own guilt. As months go by amid the islanders' whispers and gossip, Sport senses that she is being stalked. When the families of the four survivors gather on the island to celebrate Christmas, it's Sport's time to pay.