It's June, four months on from the events in A Crack in the Line. Naia and Alaric's lives have changed immeasurably. Alaric has grown in confidence and ability, while Naia, without her beloved mother, struggles with melancholy. When Withern Rise is flooded Alaric and Naia, paddling about in their separate gardens in the family rowing boat, find themselves adrift in the same garden during the flooding of 1945, where they meet eleven year old Aldous Underwood, their great uncle, and things take a tragic turn.