Through the radiant protagonist, Dawn, and those who live around her, Harriet Adams shows how life can be taken into one's own hands, steering it into following a positive course and becoming stronger in the process. Dawn is essentially about reaching ultimate happiness, notwithstanding loss and grief, and not wasting one's life. The powerful element of the sea is prominent raising ambivalent feelings representing infinity, change, terror and passing of time. How do we keep afloat on this restless sea? How do we throw ourselves hopefully into the future to await the incoming tide, whether of joy or sorrow? How do we find our moorings and anchors? Harriet Adams explores the most crucial events in our lives.