Araceli owns a successful company that provides custom boat tours to wealthy clients who want to visit the remoter parts of the Pacific. Her friends believe her to be wealthy herself, but this is not the case. She has a gambling problem that has left her owing a lot of money to a casino owner who doesn't treat welchers kindly.
A man Araceli knows only as her "Benefactor" has agreed to pay the interest on her debt. But he wants something from her in return. In particular, he wants her to take advantage of some business dealings she had with a client named Gina Vasari three years previously.
Gina knew the location of a ship laden with treasure that had been wrecked somewhere in the Philippines four hundred years ago. Araceli made the arrangements that enabled Gina to visit the wreck site. After Gina returned to Manila with valuable artefacts she found on the sea bottom, Araceli smuggled them out of the Philippines and had them delivered to Lucerna, the small Ontario college town where Gina was living. Araceli performed these several tasks efficiently and circumspectly. For this she was well rewarded. Her Benefactor is now telling her she could be rewarded even further.
The challenge the mysterious man puts in front of her seems straightforward. Gina was murdered shortly after her dealings with Araceli were concluded. Gina's employer at that time, Hans Eric Ramm, is now the only person who knows where the wreck site is, and he wants to do a deal with the government of the Philippines regarding the sharing of the huge profits that will be made once more artefacts are recovered. But he doesn't intend to approach the government in Manila until he knows more about the treasure ship itself. Eric believes that it was once under the command of Sir Francis Drake, the famed British corsair who became the first man in history to complete a circumnavigation of the globe. Araceli's Benefactor suggests that she help Eric prove his hypothesis.
Unbeknownst to Araceli, Eric already has a project underway to determine whether his theory is correct. It is being undertaken by Kari LaMarca. Araceli finds this out soon enough. Her next challenge is to win Kari's confidence and learn about the progress she's made.
Before Araceli can supply her Benefactor with information that will satisfy him, it dawns on her that he wants something very different from what he's been telling her. In addition, she finds herself dealing with Malory Ballantyne, a man who has a relationship with Kari — a relationship that's impossible to fathom — and who is suspicious of the bond Araceli has forged with Kari.
Meeting the Night is an account of what happens when the lives of three powerfully motivated characters intersect. Araceli and Kari and Malory find themselves together in a single fragile boat, being swept along by powerful currents they can't control or even understand. Readers discover, almost from the first page, that they are caught in the very same currents.
