In the Cape Cod village of Provincetown, Massachusetts, seventeen-year-old Lorna is swept out to sea, leaving her three best friends to struggle to come to terms with their missing leader and with the secrets each endeavors to hide.
When priest Gus Silva, the man she has never stopped loving, is charged with murder, Hallie Costa, who has known Gus since childhood, must not only free him from prison, but from the curse of his past.
Sharing a simple life with his wife and young son in the post-war artist community of his childhood, free-thinking poet Toby Maytree is aided with child-care responsibilities by close friend Deary, who years later comes between Toby and his wife.