Hugh Martlet, a Canadian travelling to the southwestern tip of England on Christmas Eve with his wife Muriel, is undertaking a quest for validation, a pilgrimage. All his life Hugh has been haunted by a persistent childhood memory of his distraught father rescuing a drowning man; which his parents repeatedly discounted. Was the event real? If so, why did his parents keep the details hidden from him?
The book is a philosophical argument that there is more than one way to undertake a pilgrimage and there is more than one type of pilgrim. Whether to a physical location or to one’s inner self, what makes a journey a pilgrimage is knowing the intention behind it.
This philosophical landscape is explored within the framework of a seven day visit to Cornwall. On the train and during the visit, Hugh meets a series of characters, each of whose personal missions intertwine with his own and lead to the corroboration of his memory. These human connections give context to unpacking perspectives on the human condition and invite us to examine concepts such as synchronicity, personal growth, truth and reconciliation, creativity, belief, and self-worth.