In 1965, nineteen-year-old Kya watches a familiar beach crowd from hiding, aching at their easy companionship. When Chase Andrews glances back and holds her gaze, she feels noticed and returns to the beach repeatedly, drawn by desire and loneliness despite knowing the risks of being seen.

Alone at her lagoon, Kya rolls in the swash, anticipating the sea’s touch, surrendering to its embrace. The sensual moment underscores her yearning to be held and not be alone.

Seeking contact, Kya visits Jumpin’s wharf more often. There, Chase approaches, introduces himself, and invites her on a Sunday picnic by boat at the oak peninsula north of Point Beach. Kya agrees. Drifting home, she recites poems and, stung by memory, thinks of Tate’s abandonment.

The narrative then reveals Tate’s missing return: on the eve of July 4, a professor, Dr. Blum, invited him on a prestigious birding weekend, which Tate accepted. Fifteen days later he came back, saw Kya studying organisms on a sandbar, and hid to watch, imagining her gifts among scientists.

When a fisherman’s engine neared, Kya panicked and hid, exposing to Tate the depth of her fear and isolation. Confronted with her world and his ambitions, Tate decided he could not have both. He left without speaking to her, condemning his own cowardice as he motored away.