It is 1950 in the seaport town of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. Celeste Alexander, the daughter of a poor lobster poacher, dreams of something more than the life she leads cleaning the houses of her wealthy neighbours. When opportunity comes knocking, she leaps at the chance to take a waitressing job in the nearby town of Kentville, forever changing the arc of her life.

Soon after arriving in Kentville to work at Sadie's Restaurant, she meets William Lockhart. An aspiring architect and admirer of Shakespeare, William sweeps her off her feet, and their romance blooms with first-love quickness and intensity. Though they have only been seeing each other for a few months, the lovers envision a future together.

But Celeste's bright dreams of a happy life with William are cast under an ominous cloud when he joins the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, a regiment of the Canadian army, hoping that a short stint in the military will help him further his career in the future. Celeste's worst fears are realized when William is sent off to fight in the Korean War, and she learns that she is pregnant with his child.

Set against the backdrop of small-town Canada and the Korean War, this sweeping family saga gives voice with compelling sensitivity and grace to the cascading effects of loss and hardship across generations-and how hope, love, and the enduring power of family bonds can lift people up in the lowest moments of their lives.