Ten-year-old Megan is exploring the mangroves when she has a surprise encounter with Penina. Both girls are shy and their efforts to become friends are soon ruined by Penina’s surly older brother Gordon who demands Megan leave. When Penina tries to defend her new friend, her brother bullies her into submission.
Alone again, Megan continues on her adventure and wades out into the deep mud of the mangrove channels with a spear that she has made. As she attempts to spear a fish, she puts the barbed metal spearhead through her foot, trapping herself in the deep mud. The watermarks on the mangroves that surround her show the high tide level, well above her head, and as the tide slowly begins to rise around her, so does her realisation that she is in mortal danger.
As the day drifts on in the quiet mangroves the tide continues to rise ever higher andMegan’s hopes of being rescued grow slimmer. Just when all seems lost, hope floatsby in the form of Gordon and Penina. Gordon’s confrontational nature however only makes a bad situation worse. Megan’s pride does not allow her to ask them for help. When the two children leave, they are still unaware of her predicament
Later on, Penina’s intuition leads her to realise that something is not right. Like Megan, she must find her own courage, if she is to break from her brother’s overbearing influence and go back to help her. But by that time it may already be too late.
