After an 1861 Oregon storm tragically takes the life of assistant lighthouse keeper Wyatt Saunders, it sets events in motion that forever change the lives of head keeper Gus Crosby and Wyatt's family. And it sets the stage for a new assistant keeper, a young man named Jesse Fayette, who shows up at the lighthouse on the banks of the Umpqua River to take over for Wyatt. The stately lighthouse provides direction for mariners in the truest sense of the word, but symbolically for Gus and Jesse, it also enables them to eventually form a friendship that stands the test of trials and time. After Jesse marries, the lighthouse endures another horrendous storm that blasts its way through the area of the Pacific. As the keepers struggle for survival, in more ways than one, they maintain a dogged determination to restore navigational aid to the mariners, and return to their old way of life. But will that be possible? And what will happen to them if it is not?