Kate Ryan and her husband, John, have a rollicking pub in the Irish village of Mountfern, four lovely children, and such wonderful dreams. But all that changes one fateful summer when American millionaire Patrick O?Neill comes to town with his irresistible charm and money to burn. As love and hate vie for a town?s quiet heart, old traditions begin to crumble away. Patrick O?Neill means to build the grand hotel of his dreams, with its promise of wealth...

The remote island village of Neverness is a world far from our time and place. The air hangs rich with the coconut-scent of gorse and the salty bite of the sea. Harsh winds scour the rocky coastline. The villagers' lives are inseparable from nature and its enchantments. Verlyn Webbe, born with a wing for an arm, unfurls his feathers in defiance of past shame; Plum is snatched by a water bull and dragged to his lair; little Crab Skerry takes his first...