James is bored. Friends, school and home have all turned sour and now he's stuck on a quiet lakeside holiday with Mum while Dad is away on business. Enter Izzy, a sailing-mad girl who offers to teach James to sail too. Things are just starting to look up when Dad is involved in a serious accident abroad and Mum must fly to his bedside. Luckily, Izzy's grandparents offer to let James stay so that he can continue sailing. Despite his worries about his father to add to his troubles, James enjoys getting to grips with tacking, hiking, capsizing and through his sailing lessons with Izzy learns to come to terms with life back home.