Costa Prize winner and Booker finalist Andrew Miller has written an intriguing novel about the loneliness and mystery of the human soul. Maud is mysterious and aloof, so much so that everyone wants to help her and save her lost soul. Tim, a philologist and musician, also falls for a mysterious girl, a future scientist whose dream is to explore the sea and its inhabitants. Tim and Maud are united by an attraction to the water: they get married, buy a small used yacht, go out to sea, give birth to a child. But for Maud, all this - marriage, child, slow life - is like a cover. She does not understand the conditions of the world around her, and the world does not understand her desire to live outside the usual conventions. When the time comes to understand the boundaries of her inner world, Maud will have to decide to transition. But is it possible to overcome loneliness with even more loneliness?