Ruth Duchamp leaves New York in order to find a way to come to terms with a future she fears. She and her husband Alex married not so much in haste as with too little self-knowledge. Attractive without being conventionally pretty, red-haired Ruth is a product of the rock-bound coast of Maine with all that implies and a reserved and practical upbringing.
This is a story about what home can mean to those fortunate enough to have spent their early lives in a place with a family history. It opens when the three Adams children face the fateful summer when Maiden Run seems besieged. The echoes of that summer sound in each of their lives thereafter.