Norea Nolan leaves her destitute Irish village by stealing the boots from her mother's coffin, walking to Dublin, and ending up on a remote island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Her daughter Dagmar is able to control the weather and has a remarkable gift for gardening. Nyssa, the daughter of Dagmar and musician Colin, is as musically brilliant as her father and as struck with wanderlust. When Nyssar runs off with one of her father's oldest friends, Dagmar's wrath invokes an icy rain that envelops the landscape.