On a hot summer day, Sixteen year-old Verity heads to the wild Northumberland coast as she makes her way home from boarding school. Castle is a drifter, demobilised from the army and sleeping rough along the coast. Though their paths never cross, their lives
become intertwined. At first, the summer holidays offer Verity the chance to get drunk with her friends in the city, go swimming and sunbathing. Even fall in love with a young Polish immigrant working as a taxi driver. Her parents – Anne and Jim – are proud
of how their daughter is growing up, though they worry about her. Jim is a local CID policeman. His love for Verity and Anne seems tinged with a sadness and anger. Anne is a university professor, a pragmatic mother, uncomfortable expressing her affection for
Verity. As Verity and Castle orbit closer and closer towards each other, the loving spaces between Verity, Anne and Jim are eroded by acrimonious silence. What happened to Jim during his foreign police service in the Iraq war? Why doesnʼt Anne want to know?
When Castleʼs dead body washes up on the coast and Jim is tasked to lead the investigation, Jimʼs experience during the war and occupation begin to emerge.
Feedback