Driven from the Fundy shore into Saint John by the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant expropriations, Alex McNab grows up a lonely, insecure failure. At thirty, to make a clean break, he takes a job at New Dawn, a Halifax rehabilitation workshop.

At New Dawn, the distinction between the helper and the helped blurs. Jeff, seventeen and blind, knows all about cars, so Alex teaches him to drive. In turn, Alex has his fuzzy thinking firmly adjusted by a descendant of Jamaican Maroons plagued by encroaching Alzheimer's. Alex sees right away that Gloria Vincent has adopted a sloppy dress and ugly glasses to hide her intelligence and beauty, and they cautiously fall in love.

Alex can't prevent New Dawn from going broke any more than he can shrug off the shadow of death that follows him. But he can control the force of life. By the end of the summer, his safe, depressing existence has become a full, exhilarating, and at times frightening adventure.