Synopsis: It sounded like the perfect trip: biologist needed for an all expenses paid trip to the Galapagos Islands leaving from San Diego, California. With only a few months left before she has to defend her PhD dissertation on whiptail lizards at the University of Texas, Joan Carter needed the vacation. The carefully constructed life she had made for herself was currently in shambles--her long-time boyfriend had just left her for a job in South America, she hadn't been able to talk honestly with her father for years, and Joan was starting to have doubts about both the science she had long put her faith in as well as the religion of her upbringing. What occurs on the voyage enables Joan to find a new path, one that provides a bridge from her past to a brand new phase in life.