A family illness forces L.A restaurateur Katherine Hubbard and her director husband Nick Haskell home to the Nova Scotia fishing community she fled at 17. Time hasn't softened her dislike of the place or her alienation from her sick mom and envious brother. But with Nick's career slump taking its toll on their marriage and their oldest daughter in with a bad crowd in L.A., Black Harbour and the family boatbuilding business suddenly look like a new beginning.

Katherine and Nick stir up trouble in their bid to buy the family boatyard from brother Len. Katherine's old boyfriend, Paul, is forced to choose sides when Nick uses him as a pawn. Meanwhile, 14-year-old daughter Tasha tries to escape Black Harbour with the help of Paul's son, Michael, and Katherine fights with her mother over misplaced loyalties to her docto