A weathered grave marker, found in a decaying sea-wall, begins this exploration of mysteries, markers, placed persons, islanders and sailors. These motifs criss-cross and develop into both prose and verse in this book about history and poetry. Its setting: a summer home on an island in Maine. Its theme: Everyman and Everywoman. Guides like Buckminster Fuller and Wendell Berry are woven into the text, and the book is rich in family life: sons and daughters and grandchildren, and the family debators, father and mother. Islanders are the aplaced persons, a and they all come together to explore the relationship between mystery and markers.