Book excerpt: Exhausted, in the aftermath of her life changing experience in India, Penny returns to the United States. She wants nothing more than to go home to Maui, but she can't afford the air fare from New York. She knows there are cheap fares from California and she has family there. Penny takes a cross country bus from Port Authority, New York, to San Jose, California. She arrives a few days before the Thanksgiving holiday. Penny's cousins live across the Golden Gate Bridge, in Marin County. Penny loves Marin County and decides to look for a rental. Unfortunately, the impromptu family reunion, occasioned by her arrival, turns out to be a colossal disaster. Rejected and cast out Penny revisits her plan to return to Maui. En route to the travel agency she stumbles upon an advertisement for a house sitting position. Penny calls the advertiser, Scott. To her delight the position has not been filled. Essentially homeless, Penny thinks it's her lucky day and takes the job. All these activities are observed by Scott's neighbor, a police officer named Matt. Matt immediately acquaints himself with Penny in an effort to warn her about Scott. Unfortunately, Penny is more apt to mistrust a police officer than seemingly harmless home owner, Scott. What Penny is doomed to learn is that Scott has a sinister agenda, and that his ad is an ongoing lure for forgotten people.