In the small village of Kiltee, on the Northern Ireland coastline, young eight year old Garrett Daley is swept out to sea while riding his horse, Maggie, on a windy afternoon in September 1970. His horse returns covered in salt water but young Daley does not. After extensive searching and police investigations for nearly a year, it was presumed that he had drowned. His parents, along with his younger twin brothers, moved to Boston, USA a year after the tragedy, but never lost hope that one day they might have an answer to his disappearance. The Daley's good friends and former neighbors in Kiltee, the Finn's, have an energetic seven year old son named Caffrey. And on a Saturday afternoon in May 1974, while riding his own horse, Silk, he comes upon a young stranger down by the dunes. After further conversation, Caffrey discovers that in fact it is Garrett returned home after four years.