Tracy Deloche's pampered existence imploded when her husband was sent to prison. Now all she has left are twenty-five acres of Florida Gulf Coast sand, five tumbledown beach houses and no idea how to start over.

Janya Kapur comes from a wealthy, close-knit Indian family. Now she's an exile in a strange country and deeply unhappy in an arranged marriage to a man she barely knows.

Plainspoken Wanda Gray despises the old beach house she’s forced to share with husband Ken, a troubled cop. Tired of watching her marriage fail, she takes a job guaranteed to destroy it --- if he cares enough to discover what she’s doing.

Widowed Alice Brooks always dreamed of living on the beach, but since her daughter's death, she's grown forgetful and confused. Her son-in-law and granddaughter have come to stay, but Alice isn’t sure she should be grateful.

When elderly Herbert Krause, the only other resident of Happiness Key, dies alone in his cottage clutching a mysterious key, the four women are reluctantly diverted from their personal sorrows and warily come together to find his family. As Herb’s real story is revealed, the women discover difficult truths about their own lives and the men they love. Most important they also discover the treasure of a friendship that almost didn't happen.