In the 1950s, Rose’s father takes a trip that attracts enormous media attention, as he attempts to sail around the world in a wooden ketch. The voyage ends in shipwreck on a tiny atoll in the Pacific Ocean: Palmerston Island. This event was to change not only the course of Clark’s life, but that of his daughter – who hadn’t even been born at the time.
Growing up, she often heard her father speak about the small atoll in the Pacific. After the disastrous night when his wooden boat was dashed to pieces on the reef, he discovered that Palmerston Island is a paradise on earth. The few inhabitants are hospitable, the natural environment is an unlimited source of food and the only sound to be heard is the gentle rustle of the palm branches.
Little Rose is bored by her father’s stories. But as she gets older, she becomes fascinated by her father’s life. Who was he, really? She decides to go in search of his past. It is a quest that can end in only one place: Palmerston Island.
Fate had dictated that her father spend years in that place. And miraculously enough, the same thing happened to Rose. Her initial plan to spend only a short period on the island takes an unexpected turn. In the end, she lives there for years. And as with her father, her time there leaves an indelible impression.