When the land becomes a desert, the water will quench your soul.

Orphan Lena McMillan used to think that what she shared with Truman Kent was real. Now she sees their relationship for what it really is - controlling and abusive.

She has to choose to die slowly from "love" or say goodbye to the family she's always desired. Leaving scares her, though, so much so that dying seems like her only option.

But fate won't let her quit life, and Truman won't let her quit his love. Not without a fight.

Under the layers of a lonely childhood and an adulthood romance gone wrong, a starfish holds the key to Lena's parentage and the answer to the mesmeric ocean dreams that haunt her.

If she can find the strength to leave the only life she knows, Lena will discover the truth. And she will find a new world, one that will cleanse her of the memories of false love and abuse.

One that will finally lead her home.