Becky and Kathy are great friends and, in a cruel yet comforting parallel, both have recently lost their jobs and face the prospect of starting their lives all over again. Both women must endure the weaving and uncertain path of life, and love, towards a second chance at happiness.
After the First World War, two final stragglers return to North East Scotland to pick up their old lives: Mary Cowie, once a 'gutter quine' or fish gutter, who served with the Elsie Inglis Scottish Women's Hospitals field units; and Neil Findlay, once the best fishing boat skipper in Buckie, now a shell-shocked wreck. They hope the old life will cure them, but find they have changed too much to settle down again. The shadow of the war refuses to go away for many of the other village locals as well. But with change comes opportunity, and Mary and Neil will soon find their tribal and personal loyalties tested to the full as Buckie struggles to move on.