Wild Dark Shore

Fen, Dominic’s 17-year-old daughter, sees Rowan on the jagged rocks near the shore. Fen swims out to rescue her and drags Rowan onshore. A massive storm is brewing. Fen runs up to the lighthouse and tells her father, Dominic, and her older brother, Raff, that a woman has washed up on Shearwater Island.

Dom tells his youngest child, nine-year-old Orly, to stay in the house. Then, he goes to the beach with Raff, and they carry Rowan up to the lighthouse. Fen climbs into bed with Rowan to warm her and prevent hypothermia. Then, Dom tends Rowan’s wounds. Outside, the storm howls.

Dom recalls that he moved to Shearwater Island with his three children eight years prior. Shearwater is an isolated Australian island north of Antarctica. It is home to many animals and a seed vault. The only people who lived there were researchers, but they have all left as rising sea levels have made the research base unlivable. He is the caretaker of the island.

The next morning, Dom and Raff evaluate the damage from the storm. Their power sources (solar, wind, and batteries) have all been badly damaged, so they cannot radio for assistance. Dom decides to hike to the south beach of the island to check the seed vault. Before he leaves, he sees his youngest, Orly, looking over Rowan. Dom warns Orly that Rowan may not survive.

At the Shearwater Global Seed Vault, Dom sees that the power has gone out and the temperature is rising in the vault. He sets up the pump to pump out any water that comes in due to the storm surge. Then, Dom goes to the research camp. He goes into a blue hut where a researcher used to live and begins scrubbing blood off the floor of the kitchen.

Fen goes swimming with the seals. Then, she goes ashore and sees one of the female seals giving birth. Fen feels the island is haunted, but she doesn’t mind the spirits; she believes “it is only the living who have the power to harm” (16).

Orly tells Rowan about the dandelion, how it propagates, and how it contributes to the ecosystem despite being thought of as a weed.

Rowan wakes up to Orly telling her about the dandelion. She is in pain. Orly tells her that his father, Dom, has gone to assess the storm damage and will not be back until the following day. Rowan tells Orly to get some alcohol for her. He does, and she gets drunk. Orly tells Rowan that she was rescued by Fen, who is “the best swimmer” (21). Rowan wonders what happened to Yen, the captain of the ship she came in on.

Rowan goes outside to urinate and is shocked at the beauty of the starry night sky. Orly helps her back inside and then climbs into bed with her for warmth. He tells Rowan his mother is dead, and Rowan tells him that her mother is dead, too.

Dom talks to his dead wife, Claire, before he goes to sleep.

Dom returns to the lighthouse. He tells Raff that the power is down in the seed vault, but that he thinks it will stay cold enough to preserve the seeds before the ship that will carry them away, the RSV Nuyina, arrives in seven weeks. He also found the ship Rowan must have come in on; it has shipwrecked in a dangerous current they call the Drift. He tells Fen it is too dangerous to get whatever bodies remain aboard.

Rowan has a fever, so Fen puts her in the bath to cool her down. Then, Rowan overhears Fen telling Dom that she (Fen) is going to sleep in the boathouse near the beach.

The next morning, Dom accidentally walks in on Rowan in the bathroom. He helps her remove the bandages so that she can see her wounds. They introduce themselves, but Rowan does not tell Dom why she has come to the island.

In the kitchen, Rowan meets Raff. She notices he is an older teenager but working from a Grade 9 textbook (he has a learning disability). Raff explains that the research scientists have all left and that the family will be leaving soon as well. She presses Dom on radioing for help, but he is evasive, and Rowan becomes suspicious.

Dom is suspicious of Rowan and how she came to be on Shearwater Island. Raff tells his father that Rowan seemed shocked to learn the scientists had all left.

Before he goes to sleep, Dom talks to his dead wife about his suspicions of Rowan.

Rowan thinks about how all her mother wanted to do before she died was watch television, which is why Rowan no longer watches it.

Rowan goes to the research base and scavenges medical supplies that have been left there. Then, she looks at the pictures of the scientists that have been left behind. She finds one of Hank Jones, “senior botanist,” and takes it with her. Hank is her husband. She falls asleep at the base.

The next morning, Dom finds Rowan there. He tells her the scientists have all left but that his family was left behind to finish packing up the seeds from the vault that are to be saved. They have been directed to save only the seeds that can grow food crops. On their way back to the lighthouse, Dom tells Rowan that his radio and satellite internet systems have been broken by an unknown person. He knows there is a radio on Rowan’s boat, but it is too dangerous to attempt to get it.

That evening, Dom tells Orly to leave Rowan alone, as she is not feeling well. Then, Dom goes into Rowan’s room to check in on her. He sees the picture of Hank and it startles him.

Rowan thinks about the day she met Hank. She had just laid the foundation for the house she was building in the Australian Outback when Hank approached. He was doing research on the snow gum trees that grow on her land. Over coffee, he told her that she could plant a wildflower meadow on her land.

Rowan decides to ask Fen to attempt to get the radio from her ship. Orly goes down to the beach with her. Rowan tells Orly about the house she built in the Outback and how it burned down in a brush fire. He asks her, “Will we die of climate change?” (57), to which Rowan responds, “One day soon enough, everything is either going to burn, drown, or starve, including us” (57). Orly tells Rowan that Hank and Dom were not friends because Dom “could see through Hank” (59).

Fen offers to attempt to get the radio from the ship. Rowan, Fen, and Orly approach the ship in a small boat called a Zodiac, and they see the rotting carcass of Yen’s body on the rocks. They retreat in shock. When they get back to the boathouse, Raff and Dom are angry at them for attempting to get the radio. Rowan realizes she is stranded and starts to wonder if Dom and the children have killed her husband.