After a turbulent year for herself and husband Moth, Raynor Winn finds herself at the start of the Coast to Coast Path in the north of England, in bleak winter, unexpectedly alone. Despite forty-five years walking hand in hand, for the first time Moth is not with her. Setbacks in his health have led him to believe his decline is now inevitable, something Raynor refuses to accept.
With Raynor feeling trapped and tormented, and Moth needing space to come to terms with what’s happening to him, Raynor feels herself drawn north, like a migratory bird, to embark on a trail they had planned to walk together – The Coast to Coat Path. Grappling with Moth’s absence and wrecked with fears for the future, Raynor sets off in search of the renewed peace and hope that their previous journeys have always yielded.
Navigating the brutal weather, impassable paths and her own tangle of emotions, Raynor is forced to contemplate the mountains – both real and metaphorical – that the couple have had to climb to reach this point.
As she gradually finds her way back to Moth, she gains a new understanding of our intrinsic human connection to the land and the power of the natural world to help us remember, rebuild and reclaim what was once lost.
