When her marriage implodes, Rose Summer must leave behind everything she loved: her husband, her home, her shop, even her dog. With nowhere else to go, she returns to the only other place she ever felt happy: Key West, a bawdy tourist town at the tip of the Florida Keys. Working as a waitress in the same busy restaurant she served when she was young, and living with two other women, her once joyful life has grown small and bleak.

Then she meets Kurt, a wanderer with a tragic past of his own. Following an instinct she can't explain, Rose tries to draw him out of his shell and back into the world. Overcoming mistakes, misunderstandings, and the unwanted attentions of a potentially dangerous stalker, Rose opens her heart to Kurt and convinces him that life could be better.

Together, these two wounded souls can find happiness again, but only if they can overcome the obstacles that life throws at them. Like a turtle on the beach, they must navigate off the rocks and take one slow, careful step at a time across the sands toward fulfillment.