Three far-flung sisters come home to Martha's Vineyard one last time. Their mother's beach house is the only place any of them ever found true happiness and they need to begin the difficult process of letting go. Memories of their grandmother, mother, and their Irish father, who sailed away the year Dar turned twelve, rise up and expose the fine cracks in their family myth--especially when a cache of old letters reveals enough truth to send them back...

Years ago, Lyra Davis left behind a world of wealth and privilege and the people she loved most in the world, unable to reconcile the expectations of her celebrated family with the longings of her own wild heart. Now she lives quietly among a community of expatriates on the isle of Capri--until her daughter Pell travels across an ocean to find the mother she remembers and the deeper truths they all need so desperately.

Neve Halloran and her daughter Mickey are starting a new life near a wildlife sanctuary in South County Rhode Island. Mickey becomes friends with a lonely boy who is also fascinated by the creatures of the coasts and Neve is drawn to a man who has devoted his life to the sanctuary.