A lifeboat is lost off Cornwall's wild Atlantic coast. All eight crewmen die. The cause is never fully explained. Ten years later, Kate Tregillis, the editor of a small, struggling newspaper, becomes obsessed with solving the long-standing mystery. Her investigations provoke a backlash of threats and violence in the insular fishing community of St Branok. In exposing the truth, she risks the future of her newspaper and even her life - and learns that the man she loves has his own secrets.