Elderly sisters Janet and Ursula Widdington live in a quiet coastal town outside Cornwall. After a violent storm, they awake to find a young man, Andrea, washed ashore and badly injured. Upon taking him in, his presence quietly invokes Ursula's abandoned feelings of longing and Janet's maternal instincts, while also arousing suspicion and fear in the township during pre-war times in Europe. But throughout Andrea's stay, the two sisters discover his true origins, his talents as a gifted violinist and embark on a journey they had never imagined for themselves.