The novel is about three brothers, Joe, Miles and Harry, growing up before their time on the wild coast of Tasmania. Their mother died a few years previously in a car crash, and their father has become a bitter, heavy drinking man whose moods are mercurial as the sea on which he spends each day trying to make a living diving for abalone and crayfish.
Most of the book is told through the eyes of Miles and Harry as Joe had left home to live with his grandfather some time ago. For Miles there is no escape. Despite being in his early teens, Miles has to work on his father’s fishing boat working the air pump, cleaning the boat on its return and dealing with the cannery which he hates. Harry suffers from seasickness and so avoids the boat duties but that doesn’t mean he escapes his father’s bad temper. For Joe, this is the last school holidays he will spend with Miles and Harry for a while. His grandfather is dead and his house is being sold. At nineteen, Joe has decided to escape the small town where the family lives and where employment prospects are limited to the local cannery, to sail the boat he has built to adventure, but that doesn't mean it's an easy decision to leave his two brothers to the mercy of their father.
It all sounds very bleak but like many children who don’t have much, simple things give the boys some hope. Miles and Joe spend time surfing together and hanging out as brothers do. Harry receives a warm welcome at his best friend Stuart’s house with Stuart's mum giving him the softness missing from home, and things don’t feel so bad when Harry befriends the local recluse whom the other kids are scared of, but who listens to Harry’s problems with a sympathetic ear, and gives Harry the experiences that you get when you have a special relationship with an honorary uncle.
Life continues in this way, until one day everything changes, tragedy strikes, and a family secret is revealed.
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