Twelve-year-old Fali George has not spoken in the three years since her father's suicide, seeing no point to words that failed to keep him alive. Since that time, she has endured the wrath of her mother's revolving door of violent boyfriends. She finds sanctuary in her grandmother's home along a remote coastal inlet, and in the companionship of Jake Curtain, an artist who has lost the will to paint. She also attaches herself to Jake's niece, Melt Curtain, a young architect attempting to start again after a failed marriage. Fali's stubborn determination to find meaning in her father's death, as captured in her search for the elusive night heron, leads her to the story's dramatic conclusion.