Two students meet briefly on a Cornwall beach where an unknown seaweed has taken root in a cliffside cleft. She has a terrifying phobia. He is a depressive with a fixation.

On different continents, both remember their meeting, but their paths refuse to cross again until chance brings them together three years later in a research effort to uncover the origins of the plant they first saw on the beach.

While she tries to keep him from spiralling into depression, can he help her overcome the phobia that keeps her from marriage?

Will success in their research be enough? It seems not…