A Minnesota children's mission purchases a black wooden schooner in Miami, Florida, to deliver a load of children's supplies to an orphanage on the small island of Ile a Viche off the south coast of Haiti. The strict Sister Rebecca is in charge of the mission. She hires an unemployed captain from Key West to sail the ship. They encounter pirates, drug dealers, Haitian bureaucracy and Haitian Voodoo. And, of course, they discover each other.

A beautiful and peaceful, Down East Maine Island, inhabited by eagles, deer and a small number of self-reliant, family-oriented people, encounters a big-bucks developer from away. American Island Properties has had money-making sucess subdividing pristine, undeveloped, waterfront land into small lots in Massachusetts and Florida. They're convinced money talks and that Eagle Haveners are basicly stupid and will easily roll over to their clever schemes, bribes and legal shenanigans - including murder. One lobster fishing family owns property in the middle of the proposed subdivision and with the help of fellow islanders, tries to keep the pristine property intact and drive the developer from the island.