Two distinguished guests are travelling separately towards a ceremony where they will meet for the first time for over three decades. Both are apprehensive as they review the successes and failures of their lives, and their secret history. Humphrey and Ailsa met as children, by the grey northern sea to which they are returning. Humphrey had been drawn towards marine biology, but Ailsa was yet to transform into a dazzlingly flamboyant feminist celebrity. From their tangled relationship and their past careers, they are brought together again. What will they make of their past, and in what spirit will they be able to face the future?