Emily Wilson, a successful young writer, travels from New York to Bainbridge Island to visit her great-grandmother Bea. The girl has experienced a divorce and a creative crisis, so she hopes that outside the metropolis she will be able to master her thoughts and feelings. However, life on the ocean shore is no longer the same carefree as it seemed as a child during the holidays. Some of the inhabitants of the island seem to be in a silent conspiracy. Emily admires her new acquaintance Jack, but Grandma Bee expresses her displeasure in every way. In addition, the girl finds a strange diary that belonged to a certain Esther Johnson in 1943. Delving into reading, Emily decides that she must deal with the secrets of the past, her own and those of others..."