Beatrice Smith arrives at the port of Key West caught up in a whirl of emotions. The time has come for her to release her young charge into the care of his uncle. But a rocky introduction to Ellis Southard has Beatrice clinging even more to the man’s four-year-old nephew. She is convinced that this confirmed bachelor cares only for making money through his sponge business. Miss Smith is not the kind of nanny Ellis expected to invite into his home to care for his nephew. This woman is too young, too beautiful, and too much of an intrustion upon his laid-back lifestyle. He decides that she must go back to New York on the next ship. Can they reach a civil agreement about the best interest of the child? Or will an undertow of attraction only keep them at odds?