Paul Rivers returns to England after twenty years in America and during the voyage he reflects on his past and the emotions he has long suppressed while recalling the memories of his childhood, and as he observes fellow passengers moved by the sight of their homeland he becomes increasingly aware of his inner conflict between a life of freedom and the expectations of society, while he rediscovers his deep love for nature and a simple way of living yet also feels uncertainty about maintaining it in reality, and as he looks upon the sea and sky he experiences the awakening of forgotten sensations and emotions, so that even before meeting his sister and her children he senses that his life is already beginning to move in a different direction.