It was midmorning and already hot when the shark grabbed Charlie Deacon. Surfing off the wild coast of Western Australia, Charlie's life is irrevocably transformed by the trauma of almost being eaten alive. The experience marks him, both across his body with ridges of scar tissue and across his soul with fits of anger and confusion he can't seem to outrun as he drifts back and forth across Australia on his perpetual hunt for waves. Then a chance encounter at a surf hostel leads him to Amy Glanton, struggling actress and itinerant surfer from his home ground who has been working overtime to stay ahead of her own haunted past. Their love affair sprawls across the southern hemisphere as they lose themselves in the hunt for remote waves that, they hope, can take them back to themselves.