Bride Marsh and Wanda Stuckless have never been away from home. After seventeen years, their entire world consists of a small, close-knit island off the coast of Newfoundland. But the two girls have bigger and better ambitions than to be stuck on the island their birth consigned them to. The summer after high school, they make plans to leave everything behind and move to Toronto, but in the process, they realize that running away from home is not as easy as they originally thought. Once the boys in town start to show an interest in them, the girls find their plans for escape have hit a slight snag as they start to drift further apart and discover that the island might have more to offer than just a dead-end life. The novel is full of love and pathos for the tragic lives Bride and Wanda will be leaving behind. From Wanda"s blind father and catatonic mother, to Bride"s sorrowful stepfather/uncle and her sexually and emotionally insular mother, the island comes to life with their vibrant lives. With an angst reminiscent of A Complicated Kindness, No Beautiful Shore is awash in the anxiety of growing up and the irresistible urge to leave home.