This book was sometimes hard to follow and it wasn't, in my opinion, worth the effort I put into understanding who everyone was and what happened to each of the characters.
A ship explodes right after a young woman leaps from the side of the ship to the dock. Well who the h*ll would have done that, caused that explosion, because it wasn't the boiler. Murdo, the man who takes care of the business of his cousin who is laird of business on this treeless island where they are both resented by the people who have lived on this island for generations; (get a breath), Murdo wants to know who did this as he lost his "man" (the guy who does things like clean the clothes and mail the mail for the other guy) in the explosion and he was very fond of his man. (get another breath)
So Murdo suspects the young woman (Billie or Wilhemina actually) but finds out otherwise. Billie lost her sister in the explosion. Many people people this story, I'm not going into it. But it is a romance of sorts and Murdo and Billie are the main characters. Murdo is one of these bad tempered, good-looking, hurt characters who the men hate and the women love. Billie is young, dyslexic, an oddball girl who loves to swim in the ocean and has hair to die for. She is the one every man has his eye on and the women generally don't like. Stuff happens, the end.