When the body of Alison Goss washes up on a Maine island neighbors raise her unusual son, Faron. Bound together by weather and sea, they overlook his peculiarities and admire his artistic talent, but their nurturing embrace doesn’t prevent his troubled past from morphing into a life-changing event. Faron works as a sternman and paints in his studio. When he meets a bird-watching woman who has returned to the island to live in her grandparents' house his life takes another unexpected turn.