Three summers after the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe—the biggest man-made environmental disaster in history—oil is again spewing into the ocean, from a drilling explosion in Cuban waters just 60 miles away from the Florida Keys. The situation is politically complex, involving a state-run consortium tied to the Venezuelan, Chinese, and Russian governments, and highly volatile. The Cubans not only refuse offers of American assistance, but threaten to fire on “hostile” U.S. vessels that enter their waters.

Attorney Jack Swyteck and his new wife, Andie, an undercover agent for the FBI, are honeymooning in the Keys when Andie is called away on assignment. Jack, too, is soon back at work—representing an American woman whose Cuban husband was incinerated on the rig. Though the spill occurred in foreign waters, the young widow wants Jack to file a wrongful death suit in U.S. court. Pursuing the unimaginably complicated case plunges Jack into