SAFE FROM THE SEA tells the story of Olaf and Noah Torr, a father and son whose long estrangement began after Olaf survived a shipwreck on Lake Superior. More than thirty years after the wreck, Olaf believes he is dying of cancer and asks his son to come home to his isolated cabin on the lake in order to help him die. Over the course of two weeks in November, against the backdrop of the dramatic upper Midwest landscape and weather, the men reconsider each other's lives, finally summoning the courage to confess, understand and forgive.

Noah's father finally tells his son for the first time the harrowing account of the wreck of Olaf's ore boat, the SS Ragnark, a horrible secret from that night, and the survivor's guilt that has dogged Olaf ever since and caused him to abandon his family. Noah's own struggle to make a life with an absent father finds its real reward in his relationship with his sagacious wife, Natalie, whose complications with infertility issues mark her husband's life in ways he only fully understands as the reconciliation with his father takes shape.