Lucinda's life on Isla del Oro, off the coast of California, had always been that of a princess. Her father, Don Enrique, surrounded her with the luxuries that only a man of fabulous wealth could afford. Yet she was as sheltered as a princess, too. No newspapers reached the island and there was neither radio nor television--not even a book that had been written in the 20th century. Don Enrique saw to it that his daughter, steeped in her noble Spanish heritage, knew nothing of life among the "barbarians" on the mainland. Lucinda grows into young womanhood, but not until a young archeologist arrives on the island does Lucinda begin to question her world. Slowly, horrifyingly, the terrible truth about Isla del Oro and its master begins to emerge.