A family torn by grief.
Three nations at the brink of war.
And a massive storm with the power to change everything.

The year is 1811, and in Washington, D.C., a good man's heart is broken over the death of his beloved wife. But Stockton Livingstone's sense of national duty remains strong, and when President Grover Cleveland calls him to serve as ambassador to Samoa, he accepts.

Grief makes room for new challenges in a tropical paradise, with six children to raise and weighty diplomatic concerns to address. The Germans' puppet government controls the island, U.S. and British interests are at stake, and as international tensions escalate, the peaceful Samoans are forgotten--and they are preparing to respond with a violence no one expects. No one, that is, except one woman.

Mavis Thoroughgood knows the ways of the islanders. With her help, Stockton learns not just their language, but their customs and their hearts, and in the process, he strengthens his once vigorous faith. But the growing bond between the suntanned missionary and the high-bred diplomat faces opposition as imminent as the warships in the harbor--and as ungovernable as the natural force that, lurking over the horizon, threatens to sweep away ships, lives, and dreams.