That's how first time novelist Victor J. Treutel paints his characters, their lives, and their loves.

Christian, a young white man saved from racial tension as a boy by his mystic, black nanny Marisa, is taught to live and protect the last secluded Florida beach and its inhabitants. He is at ease with nature but not himself-he is alone. His struggle to understand the ways of man are only complicated when he encounters Patricia on his beach. She has run from years of abuse at the hands of a wealthy, jealous husband. She's haunted and hunted by this drunken man who must possess her. She longs for safety and seclusion in the simple beach life. Her emotional turmoil is only heightened when she finds Christian, and the deeper truths of the beach.

Patty and Christian—one created by society, the other protected from it—struggle with themselves, others, and nature. Their emotional adventure takes them from Florida's wave-breaking serenity and its hurricane vengeance to Alaska's silent, magic wilderness. They search themselves and this land for loves and lives that are...