'Travel to Skagen and find him. Give him my letter. Seek a better life, Marianne! Promise!' Bound by a vow made to her dying mother, Marianne sells her few belongings and leaves Grimsby.

Her destination? Denmark, where she will search for her father, Lars Christensen-the golden-haired fisherman her mother fell in love with many years before. The journey will be long-and dangerous for a young girl travelling alone.

As Marianne boards the fishing boat that will carry her across the North Sea, she wonders: will Denmark be the fairy-tale land she has dreamt of?

Will she find happiness there? Will the father she has never met welcome the arrival of his illegitimate child? And why didn't he return for her mother, as he promised he would?