"Joe Madden, an intense young anthropologist, has retreated to his family's summer home on Little Roanoke on North Carolina's Outer Banks, an isolated village whose accents and social traditions date back to the time of Sir Walter Raleigh. He is conducting an ethnographic study on the lives of the fisher folk, so he signs on to the boat Father's Price, sharing the tough, timeless labors of the sea and entering a complicated, edgy friendship with ex-con Ray Bristow.

He also begins a passionate love affair with Day Shaughnessy, a Yale-trained and fiercely feminist OB/GYN in residence on Little Roanoke, and increasingly at odds with prevailing local views on motherhood and abortion. Joe finds that his growing respect for the villagers' heritage of pride and sacrifice conflicts with Day's strongly voiced convictions - and then two pregnancies render the issues agonizingly concrete.

Matters come to a climax during a murderous winter storm at sea, during which the fate of the Father's Price and its crew, Joe Madden included, hangs in precarious balance."--BOOK JACKET.