To an artist's eye, the receding sea leaves the boats in the harbour looking like abandoned water toys after the bath has been drained. Living in the harbour community of St Ives, painter Esme Cochran has watched both her sons fall in love with that sea - Hugo with the surfing and Crispin with the fishing. But here, in the country of the tides, the mists and the extraordinary local light, other love affairs are also begun.

Affairs that divide husband from wife, and artist from canvas, take place alongside budding youthful romances, whilst once old sailor, Percy Prynne, is haunted by the tragic echoes of the past and watches over Esme's own growing turmoil with uncanny foreknowledge.