A terrible construction site accident takes Edgar Freemantle's right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, leaving him with little but rage as he begins the ordeal of rehabilitation. His marriage ends, and Edgar begins to wish he hadn't survived his injuries. His psychologist suggests a geographic cure, a new life in a distant place.

Edgar leaves Minnesota for a rented house on Duma Key, a stunningly beautiful, eerily undeveloped splinter of the Florida coast. The sun setting into the Gulf of Mexico and the tidal rattling of shells on the beach call out to him, and Edgar draws. A visit from Ilse, the daughter he dotes on, starts his movement out of solitude. He meets two kindred spirits and begins to paint, sometimes feverishly, his exploding talent both a wonder and a weapon...