In an isolated cabin nestled in a small ocean inlet on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, two eccentric sisters unexpectedly find themselves taking in an abandoned baby girl. Mag, the crusty, conniving older sister and the breadwinner of the family, sees the child as a burden, but Florrie, the more motherly of the two, welcomes baby Jen with open arms. As the sisters struggle to make a living from their remote inlet farm, Jen worms her way into their hearts. When the child starts school, she is suddenly faced with juggling her wilderness existence with the social demands of a modern, small-town life.

This cobbled-together family is drawn closer together as they grapple with the rigours of living off the land and battle an unscrupulous logger and developer. They are helped by Sylvia, an amateur archeologist whose ideas on parenting clash with Mags, and by Billy, who runs a salvage boat called the Squawk Box. The family's bonds are threatened by a tragedy that nearly overwhelms them.

Rosella Leslie was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and grew up in small towns throughout Alberta and British Columbia. She worked in Merritt and Vancouver, before moving in 1980 to a floathouse at Clowhom Falls on Salmon Inlet to focus on her writing career. In 1991, Leslie moved with her husband and son to Sechelt. Leslie’s hobbies include gardening, pulling up crab traps, and early morning mountain walks.

She is also the author of The Sunshine Coast: A Place to Be, and has co-authored Bright Seas, Pioneer Spirits: The Sunshine Coast, and Sea Silver: Inside British Columbia’s Salmon-Farming Industry with Betty Keller. Leslie is also one of the authors of Stain Upon the Sea: West Coast Salmon Fishing, which won The Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize at the 2005 British Columbia Book Awards. Her first solo novel, The Goat Lady's Daughter, was published in the Fall of 2006, and her second novel, Drift Child, was released in September 2010, and her third novel, The Federov Legacy was published in April 2013. In 2014 she published The Cougar Lady: Legendary Trapper of Sechelt Inlet.

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