Briony Fairborn, a midwife in eighteenth-century Scotland, comes from a family shrouded in scandal. Left with only one friend after her mother’s death, she has little hope of gaining any others, let alone finding a husband. Instead, Briony tries to live a quiet life and avoid her neighbors’ ridicule as much as possible.

But things in her hometown take a drastic turn when a storm brings foreigners to Everton's shore.

On the night Santiago Mendes arrives, he comes with a broken ship, a broken leg, and a broken spirit that Briony finds herself profoundly drawn to. Her scarred heart slowly starts to open, and although Briony suspects he may be hiding something, she can't help but dream of the possibility of love.

That is, until another stranger appears in town, intent on repaying a childhood debt. A dangerously handsome stranger who awakens the magic in Briony's blood. And who holds the secrets of her past.

But when the fate of her entire town is put at risk, Briony will have to decide where her loyalties lie. Will she be Everton’s salvation? Or its destruction?