A semi-autobiographical tale, which draws upon Cary's own upbringing to tell of a young boy's holidays spent on the Donegal coast. For six-year-old Evelyn Corner and his siblings, Dunamara is an enchanted place. A world away from England, school and duty, they can wander at will all summer long, roam in wild packs with village children, clamber and climb like squirrels, swim and dive like otters. Around them always, investing every moment with beauty and magic, is the miraculous, metallic weight of the sea. Here is innocence and excitement. Here, above all, is anticipation. Only occasionally is there a hint of another life awaiting them, a life of adulthood, of responsibilities, perhaps even of disappointments...