She was a perfectly nice girl, this Maria Dugan—though possibly a little too attractive for her own good. Craving a vacation that would really furnish thrills and excitement, she decided to treat herself to a couple of weeks in fabled Miami. There she soon learned that the only way to interest a man was to treat him better than the other pretty vacationers did. Maria’s shocked girl-friend, Peggy, went back to New York. But Maria decided to play it alone . . . .

So she found herself on a yacht, passing delightful hours with sleek experienced Donald McKay. Then Donald induced her to go to that mysterious mansion in the Everglades, the one that jaded old me and young ne’er-do-wells loved to visit in secret.
 
Features a new introduction as well as a review of Charles Willeford's Beacon books from the October 1958 edition of Nugget magazine.