Miranda Schuyler/Thomas

Miranda is the narrator for much of the story. She is the daughter of Francine and Thomas Schuyler and has dark hair like her mother. Her father dies in World War II when she is a child, which strengthens her bond with her mother in their grief. She is 18 in 1951, the first time she arrives on Winthrop Island for the marriage of her mother to Fisher in June of that year. Miranda is opposed to the way the marriage would change her relationship with her mother but refuses to stand in the way of her mother’s happiness. On the morning of her mother’s wedding, she watches Joseph rescue a fellow lobsterman from drowning. She meets Joseph that morning over a cup of coffee. She falls in love with him that night after Isobel insists that they visit Joseph at the lighthouse. Miranda’s internal...