In 1952, Kya’s father announces he is leaving for several days to seek more army disability pay. After he departs, Kya, fearing everyone will leave her, sneaks Pa’s skiff into the marsh. She navigates familiar channels toward the estuary and ocean, notes a falling tide and a brewing storm, and briefly passes a boy fishing.

Trying to return, Kya loses the channel, runs low on fuel, and feels rising panic as the storm approaches and discovery by Pa looms. She searches back to the estuary, finds the same boy, and admits she is lost. The boy recognizes her as Jodie’s sister and, introducing himself as Tate, guides her carefully through each turn to her lagoon and shack. Rain begins as Kya thanks him, checks the near-empty tank, and resolves to refuel despite the disdain of the station owner. Calmed by Tate’s steadiness, Kya feels a new pull toward both the boat and the boy.

That afternoon, the narrative follows Tate Walker into Barkley Cove. He meets his father’s shrimp boat, The Cherry Pie, helps unload the catch, and works with Scupper in the engine hold as opera plays, sketching their close, work-worn bond and family history along the coast.

At home, over charred but juicy burgers, Tate discusses school. Scupper champions poetry and reads “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” stirring shared memories of Tate’s mother and sister. Later, while choosing a poem for class, Tate reads lines about a girl paddling a canoe in the swamp and thinks of Kya alone in the marsh, realizing how words can make him feel and deepening his quiet concern for her.