The following edition of the text was used in the creation of this study guide: McConaghy, Charlotte. Wild Dark Shore. Canongate, 2026. Kindle AZW file.

The novel alternates between the perspectives of five characters: Rowan, Dom, Raff, Fen, and Orly. It opens with Rowan fearing she is about to drown. Soon after, Fen rescues a badly injured woman from the sea and brings her to the lighthouse where she lives with her father Dom and brothers Raff and Orly. Dom treats Rowan’s injuries and stitches her wounds. The family lives on the remote Shearwater Island, where Dom moved with his children eight years earlier. The island hosts a research centre and a global seed vault, but after a recent storm Dom discovered that the communications equipment had been sabotaged. With no way to contact the outside world, they must wait six weeks for the next supply ship.

While Rowan recovers, Orly stays with her and tells her about the seeds stored in the Shearwater Global Seed Vault, which preserves plant species in case of global catastrophe. Fen spends most of her time in a nearby boathouse and swims with the island’s seals. Both Fen and Orly believe the island is haunted, although Raff is skeptical. Rowan gradually realizes that the sailor who brought her to the island, Yen, must have drowned. When Dom questions her about why she came, Rowan claims she does not know, although she secretly watches for any sign that Dom recognizes her name.

Rowan soon learns from Raff that all the scientists have left the island and only Dom’s family remains. Dom later confirms that Rowan’s boat has been found with no survivors and asks if she was trying to reach Shearwater. Rowan lies and says she was not. Meanwhile Dom becomes suspicious of Rowan’s motives, particularly after Raff tells him she seemed surprised to hear that the researchers had gone.

Despite her injuries, Rowan walks to the abandoned research base and finds a photograph of its team leader, Hank Jones. She takes the photograph, revealing to the reader that Hank is her husband. Dom later sees the photo and becomes alarmed. Rowan recalls meeting Hank in Australia while she was building a house and he was researching local plant life. In the present, Fen offers to swim out to Rowan’s wrecked boat to retrieve its radio, but when they approach the wreck they discover Yen’s mutilated body on the rocks. Rowan shields Orly from the sight, while Fen is deeply upset. Dom angrily confronts Rowan for endangering his children, and Rowan begins to suspect the family may have harmed Hank. Dom reveals he knows she is Hank’s wife. He insists that Hank left the island with the other researchers and says he does not understand why Rowan came looking for him. Rowan recalls the strange emails Hank sent before she left, including a final message telling her he was in danger and asking her to send help.

Rowan helps Dom repair storm damage to the solar batteries and the two begin to feel drawn to each other. Later Rowan accompanies Dom and Orly to the seed vault to sort seeds, prioritizing those most useful for humanity’s survival. When they stay overnight in nearby field huts, Rowan notices a strong smell of bleach and grows suspicious. She later tests the hut floor with luminol and discovers it was once covered in blood. Rowan persuades Raff to take her out to record whale sounds and convinces him to stay overnight at the huts so she can investigate. On the way back their boat is capsized by a whale, and Rowan rescues Raff from drowning, triggering memories of her younger brother River, who drowned when they were children. Afterward Rowan confides this story to Dom, something she never told Hank. They kiss, though Rowan wonders whether Dom might be responsible for Hank’s disappearance.

Rowan secretly returns to the huts and finds a freshly dug grave. Dom stops her digging and instead uncovers the body himself. Rowan expects Hank but instead finds Alex, Raff’s boyfriend. Dom explains that Alex had come to the island with his brother Tom and fallen in love with Raff. One night Alex and Raff stayed in a hut near the sea; when it was swept into the water, Tom and his partner Naija rescued them but drowned. Devastated by his brother’s death, Alex later took his own life, and Dom buried all three bodies on the island. Although Dom insists Hank left the island in a disturbed state of mind, Rowan remains suspicious. The two spend the night together but later agree their relationship was a mistake. Rowan admits she never wanted children, not only because of climate change, as she told Hank, but because the world feels too dangerous.

Meanwhile, distressed by Dom’s continued attachment to his late wife Claire, Fen burns Claire’s remaining belongings on the beach. Dom is devastated, although Rowan comforts him. Soon afterward the family realizes the seed vault cannot be saved from flooding. They begin transporting the most important seeds to a freezer in the lighthouse, with Orly deciding which seeds to rescue.

Rowan overhears Dom and Fen speaking privately and becomes convinced they are hiding something. Returning alone to the seed vault, she opens a hidden hatch and discovers Hank alive, imprisoned beneath the vault. Fen’s perspective reveals what happened: she developed a crush on Hank when he arrived and they began a sexual relationship. Hank later became unstable and started destroying seeds. When Fen believed she might be pregnant, he tried to drown her. Alex and Raff witnessed the attack and told Dom, who beat Hank in a confrontation at the field hut. With communications sabotaged and no way to call for help, Dom eventually imprisoned Hank beneath the seed vault to protect Fen and the seeds.

When Rowan finds Hank, he begs her not to tell Dom and asks her to free him later when no one will see him escape. As the seed vault floods and the evacuation ship approaches, Rowan reveals she knows where Hank is and insists they cannot leave him to die, but Dom refuses, saying Fen’s safety must come first. Later Dom begins to reconsider. At the same time Rowan realizes Orly has secretly returned to the vault. Orly frees Hank, but Hank traps him in the cell and escapes. Rowan and Dom rush back to the vault by separate routes. Rowan reaches the flooded chamber first and finds Orly trapped. As the water rises they try to climb out while Dom attempts to break through the hatch above. Meanwhile Hank attacks Fen at the boathouse; she fights him and they both fall into the sea, where Hank drowns. Raff pulls Fen to safety.

Inside the flooding chamber Rowan realizes she cannot let Orly die as River did. As the water fills the room she breathes the last of the air in her lungs into Orly’s mouth, keeping him alive until Dom breaks through and rescues him. Rowan drowns before he can save her.

As Dom and the children leave Shearwater Island, they reflect on Rowan’s sacrifice. Dom realizes she helped restore his family. In the final scene Orly remembers Rowan and hopes she is safe somewhere, like the seals that survived the storm by hiding in the kelp forests.