Wild Oranges

John Woolfolk arrives at a quiet Georgia bay aboard his yacht, seeking rest from whatever haunts him. Instead, he finds Millie Stope, wild, elusive, swimming alone in the moonlight before vanishing into the darkness. She lives in isolation with her aging father, shadowed by a dangerous man named Nicholas whose intentions remain unclear. What begins as curiosity becomes something deeper: an entanglement with a woman whose mysterious past and fragile present draw Woolfolk into a world of hidden peril. The humid Southern coast, the yacht idling in calm waters, the tension between what Millie flees and what John seeks, all of it builds into a meditation on escape, desire, and the ghosts we carry. Hergesheimer writes with lush, careful prose that captures an era's fascination with the untamed and the dangerous. For readers who love early American literary fiction, Southern Gothic atmosphere, and romance edged with mystery.