A North Pacific right whale beached at Sunavik, a village off Alaska's coast, one day in June. Young Anna Crowley takes the maritime saying literally: "Whatever is cast up is yours" in her protective attitude toward the whale as government agents come to assess and manage the whale stranding. Sunavik, caught up in climate change, has seen house pilings list into the thawing permafrost. Strange species of birds show up. Graves in the cemetery fall to the sea. Is the whale another sign? Or a signal of deeper significant changes to come? Grandmother Matrona carries some of the answers, but the rest are revealed as summer progresses, when more surprises than the whale shows up.