This collection of excerpts centers on Phillip Quinn, a man who rose from a difficult youth in Baltimore to a successful career in advertising, yet remains deeply connected to his adopted family and their boatbuilding business on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The narrative follows his evolving relationship with Sybill Griffin, a sophisticated researcher who arrives in their town with her own hidden agenda concerning Seth, a young boy the Quinn family has recently taken in. Sybill initially maintains a professional distance while observing the family and Seth, but becomes increasingly entangled emotionally with Phillip and witnesses the strong, albeit sometimes boisterous, bonds of the Quinn family and the complicated history that led to Seth's arrival, ultimately confronting her own past and the truth about her sister Gloria's harmful actions.