The fiercest storm in living memory pounds the shores of nineteenth century Cornwall, wrecking ships and bringing death and destruction to seafarers and coastal communities. When a young girl is found, washed up among the rocks of a remote North Cornish cove, she is barely alive. However her arrival, and the mystery surrounding her background, will affect the lives of those who come to know her - and, for Alice Kilpeck in particular, nothing will ever be the same again.