Wen Apollo runs the mailboat in a small island community. On a raw spring day, she delivers a package to Owl Island, summer home to the illustrious Gage family. Given the time of year, she assumes the island is uninhabited. Except it's not. The family's oldest daughter, Estelle, emerges from the house and invites her in for tea, of all things. Estelle Gage escaped to the islands, in what most people would still consider winter, seeking solitude and an escape from her ex-wife. With the deadline fast approaching for her latest novel, she must devote herself to writing. But when the handsome mailboat captain shows up on her doorstep, it complicates things.

A steady stream of packages continues to bring Wen back to Owl Island, and to Estelle. Each visit stretches longer than the one before. But summer looms, and with it, the arrival of Estelle's extended family, including the matriarch, her overbearing mother. This will spell the end to Estelle and Wen's idyllic time cloistered together on the remote island. It also bears light on a question that's weighed heavily on Wen. Is the gap between their worlds too wide for any kind of lasting relationship?.