It is late spring in a small port town on the shores of the Great Lakes. Joseph Allenby is about to turn 17. With his final year of high school just a summer away, Joe finds himself at a crossroadsuncertain about his future, and anxious to find a place in a world where he feels he doesnt belong. Seeking refuge from an unsettling environment at home, Joe begins to spend more and more time among the people and boats at the local marina. For as long as he can remember, he has been lured to the waters edgestrangely comforted by iteven though his family has never held any particular attachment to seafaring. It is here that he meets Zen, a mysteriousvoyager and a storyteller who is travelling single-handedly around the world in his boat, the Raconteur. When it is revealed that Zenis on a mission as strange and compelling as the man himselfone that is linked to a legend as old as timeJoe embarks on his own journey of discovery and the voyage of a lifetime.