Disillusioned by the Vietnam war and troubled by their own past, Kate and Andy leave New York City for a remote Nova Scotia fishing village in search of a simpler life. Living in Andy’s boyhood summer home, they discover the old house is haunted by its original owner, Basil Tannard, who decades earlier was saved by a seal from an accident at sea.
As Kate and Andy settle into the barren, Atlantic community and start a bookstore and begin to raise a family, they discover the problems of their own past are mirrored in the unrest of the locals who are grappling with change as modern technology threatens their traditional fishing livelihood.