""Some people are born into the right family. A family that will stay with you no matter what. Some people, like Seth and me, just have each other. That doesn't mean there isn't a place for us. It just means no one's going to set life down in front of us, ready-made.""

Eleven-year-old Abigail Chambers and her younger brother, Seth, have lost their mother to smallpox and their father to the sea. It is 1806, in the Maine seaport of Wiscasset, and their future is uncertain. With no family to watch out for them, Abbie and Seth must make a new life, find a new home.

Working for the young widow of a sea captain may be a temporary answer -- but only if Seth keeps out of trouble and Widow Chase finds a way to support herself.

As the months pass, Abbie and Seth find more questions than answers, until Abbie has an idea that may be the solution for all of them. But first Widow Chase must listen and Seth must leave the past behind.