A man has lived on his own beside a wild, unforgiving coastline for many years. His companions are the birds, the land and the sea. From a choice made long ago, he keeps himself separate from the world of people and he gains a fierce pleasure from his environment. His solitude is broken by his discovery, one early morning on the flat sands of low tide, of a child washed up on the beach, but still alive. This is a novel of redemption, the story of a man experiencing the world as though for the first time.