Salt tongue

It's 1615 on an island off the coast of Ireland, and Fintan has caught the last fish in the sea. When he finds a man washed ashore that same day, he assumes Rossa must be a shipwrecked sailor and takes him home to recover.

Fintan’s wife, Maire, has arranged for their daughter, Niamh, to marry the sheep farmer next door. But as Niamh negotiates with Donal over their impending union, she begins to feel an inescapable attraction to the stranger from the beach. He doesn’t remember where he’s come from and, at times, doesn’t seem to remember how to be a person at all.

Things turn strange the longer Rossa stays – a storm rages for weeks on end, the ocean churns, and livestock is drowning in waterlogged grass. With the island on the brink of starvation, the true reason for Rossa’s arrival comes to light, and Niamh must decide what she values most.