It’s the summer of 1929 and Mhairi MacKinnon is in need of a husband. As the eldest girl among nine children, her father has made it clear that he can’t support her past the coming winter. Options are limited on the island of St Kilda, but the MacKinnons’ neighbour, Donald, has a business acquaintance on Harris also in need of a spouse and offers to chaperone Mhairi there on his final crossing of the year.
She returns an engaged woman, but is in love with the wrong man – one who can never be hers. As she dreads the spring, when she will be sent from home to become a stranger’s wife, word arrives that St Kilda is to be evacuated. The lovers are granted a few more stolen hours together, but those last days on St Kilda also bring heartache for Mhairi and her friends.
And, when a dead body is discovered on the abandoned isle, they all find themselves under the shadow of suspicion . . .
