In folklore, mermaids have been portrayed as both unlucky omens and attractions for good fortune; as either foretelling or provoking disaster or providing assistance, gifts, and rewards.

In 1879, twenty-one-year-old Mhaire O'Moore's life in the sleepy New Mexico village of Puerto de Luna, Doorway to the Moon, is changed drastically by the arrival of Miles Neville, the Seventh Earl of Blackwater.

Not only is he English and Protestant, he now owns the vast Luna land grant along with its grand home, which should have been Mhaire's had her Irish father not thought it prudent to commit suicide.

The Luna estate encompasses the sacred artesian springs there in the desert, near the spot where the conquistador Coronado was believed to have passed in 1541. Rumor has it that Coronado stashed a horde of gold there on his return trip from the Seven Cities of Gold . . . and legend has it that the bottomless waters contains the mythical mermaid.

The fiery Mhaire wants her rights to the Luna land grant back. The masterful Miles needs Coronado's stash of gold somewhere on the land grant. While a powerful attraction exists between them, they are both determined to gain their goals, despite the possible misfortune it could mean for the other.

If such a fanciful creature as a mermaid, indeed, inhabits those holy waters of Puerta de Luna, then does the mermaid's demise mean both Mhaire and Miles are doomed, as well?