"Life doesn't just grow you up and leave you there; it keeps beating you into different shapes, like the cliffs."

The people of Carrick have been whispering behind Neen's back for most of her life; ever since her father drowned and her mother disappeared.

The townspeople say her mother was a merrow who has returned to her real home in the ocean. Neen wonders if perhaps the villagers are right. But if her mother is a merrow then what does this make Neen?

This pitiless summer all the talk will end in trouble.

All Neen wants is the truth.