TRIP TO PARADISE is a tale about two women: Liz Steele, 25, and her 73-year-old grandmother, Nellanor Doherty Steele. An Irish immigrant at age 16, Nell Doherty worked as a maid for the wealthy Steele family. Raped by the son of a rich neighbor, Nell, now pregnant,was fired from her job. One of the Steele family's sons felt sorry for her and married her, not realizing his enraged parents would then disown him. Not long after that he died, leaving Nell to raise Charlie, her son from the rape. Charlie grew up, married and had five children. Then he and his wife succumbed to the then-prevalent Tuberculosis, leaving Nell Steele to raise her five grandchildren. However, four of her husband's siblings came to town, each demanding one of the children. No one asked for the four-year-old girl, Liz.
A bitter Grandma Steele raised Liz, but when she was 21, Liz moved to San Francisco. When a brief but impassioned love affair ended, Liz returned to her Grandmother's home for stability and nourishing. Liz asked about her siblings, and decided to re-establish contact.
She traveled to Vancouver, Canada to visit with her brother Mark, a geologist working for an aluminum firm. She attempted to meet with her brother Luke, a banker in New York City. Liz contacted her sister, Margaret-Mary, who had received a new name, Sister Therese, when she became a Carmelite nun.
Liz drove to Mystic, Connecticut to see her eldest brother, Matt, a Harvard-trained economist. Disillusioned when his debutante wife divorced him for a Duke, he quit his job and took odd jobs fishing, finally finding a meaningful relationship with his second wife. From Mystic Liz drove down the East Coast, determined to settle in Key West, Florida.
She continued down US Route#1, passing Miami and leaving the Florida mainland, driving another 165 miles, over 22 bridges. The road ended in her island paradise, quirky Key West. Liz found a job working for the local newspaper.
She met Juan Robertson, who courted her. They became romantically involved but Liz did not know that Juan was active in a covert group of secret agents, Brothers Assisting National Defense. Their assignment was to get some information to their contacts in Cuba. Chief Agent, Mr. Bill, manipulated the editor of the newspaper to send Liz on a writing assignment in Cuba. Then Mr. Bill told Juan he was to secrete certain microfiche into Liz' belongings. She was not to be told anything. While in Cuba, Liz gradually became aware of strange things happening to her, as if she were being suspected of being a spy.
When she returned to Key West, Juan was not the attentive romantic he had been prior to her trip to Cuba. Her family met in Mystic, Connecticut for Christmas in the home of Matt and Marian Steele. What happened there were several surprises.
