When her mother dies after an accident, Astrid Stowell moves to the small New Zealand Coromandel Peninsular village of Hook Bay to live with her grandfather, Steve Barton. She has to cope with life in a new environment with old friends' help and betrayal, a new school to attend for her final high school year and an early encounter with the forces of nature.

Steve's love and guidance, as well as Astrid's ability as an artist, helps her through difficult times. New friends enter her life, old ones return and her talent is encouraged by the local school principal. Her life now has a future.

That is until the tsunami builds up in the Pacific Ocean and heads south... directly towards Hook Bay. A prediction Astrid made in her research is about to be proved true