When an unknown woman steps off a beached Peruvian freighter and walks into the Vancouver Island town of Port Annie, nothing can ever be quite the same. Stalwart citizens, tired of their milltown routine, grasp at a fresh subject for gossip. Others are suddenly prepared to make momentous decisions. But eccentric old Joseph Bourne, who knows that the endless rain is going to bring a landslide down on the town, is certain that the mysterious woman has come looking for him.