70 year old widow Tova Sullivan began working as a night cleaner at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. She was grieving for her recently deceased husband and also her eighteen-year-old son, Erik who had mysteriously vanished on a boat over thirty years ago.
She forms a strange friendship with Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium who being the intelligent creature he is sees all and knows all.
Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova’s son disappeared.
He is able to leave signs for Tove to interpret as clues about what happened to Erik.
The story is told at times from the unique angle of Marcellus the octopus.
Because of this the first few chapters seem rather strange but the whole situation soon becomes totally absorbing. In the end we all enjoyed this book some more than others!