Like the many generations of watermen who have

sailed the Mid-Atlantic s storied Chesapeake Bay, Jessie

Andrews and her father make their living harvesting crab

from its depths.

Jessie s father is murdered and his shocking,

gruesome death contains a symbolic message: his killers

are not finished. They did not find what they sought.

Realizing she is in mortal danger, Jessie flees with her

lover Meredith.

Jessie disguises herself in male clothing, and finds

work on her beloved Chesapeake Bay when Wash. a

black waterman, hires her. He tells Jessie, "Sometimes I

see things. I know things.. I ought not to know."

But even Wash cannot see the full extent of the

danger closing in on them. The women are pursued by

the killers of her father and a lethal creature aptly

nicknamed the Animal. And Federal agents are involved

-- because the peril to Jessie and Meredith is part of a

larger scheme involving the highest levels of America s

government.

The Chesapeake Project brings us a ringingly