It is the summer of 1945 in Norfolk, England, and when Goose comes upon a German soldier buried neck deep in the mud of a local salt marsh, she pulls him out and brings him home. Nine months later, he vanishes in a makeshift boat, leaving Goose behind with a newborn daughter, Lil. Taught to read the clouds by her mother, Lil is curious and her childhood strange. When she becomes the object of two brothers' desire, her life takes a tragic turn.
Fifteen years later, it is Lil's son, Pip, who attempts to make sense of his family's intriguing history. Pip, who never utters a word, is alone and isolated in his mute world and is beguiled by the lovely flame-haired Elsie who lives nearby. Pip comes of age among the marshes like the generations before him-but will the misfortune of his family's past repeat itself through him?
