Sarah Jacobs is a writer - born and raised in New England, but residing in Montreal for the past 30 years. In an effort to write about her experience teaching on an island off the coast of Maine, she returns there to get a feel for the place and its people.
Someone is shot on the island the day before she arrives several of her former students are involved in the incident.
Suddenly she is caught up in the ongoing dispute over lobster fishing territories and the families who've been feuding for generations. Sarah's writing takes a back seat; her self-esteem takes a tumble, and her life begins to unravel as she finds history repeating itself.