A young boy builds a sand castle on the beach and a dragon moves in. The boy and the dragon spend the day at the shore flying a kite, braving the waves, defying bullies, and roasting marshmallows, while the boy's parents remain occupied nearby with their own pastimes. When no one believes the boy's story about the dragon, the creature launches into a mischievous mode and wreaks havoc on everything in its path-- or is it all in the boy's imagination?...

Six children -- Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny and Louis -- meet in a garden close to the sea, their voices sounding over the constant echo of the waves that roll back and forth from the shore. The book follows them as they develop from childhood to maturity and follow different passions and ambitions; their voices are interspersed with interludes from the timeless and unifying chorus of nature.