The spring Saturdays when Mrs. Tal comes to Leiden in her long black skirt, her pleated apron and her starched white cap, calling, "Herring for Sale, New Herring!" are always eagerly awaited by the three van Dam girls. And the two weeks each summer when Jos, Amy and Elly visit "Mrs. Herring's home by the sea are always among the happiest days in the year. 

But this summer everything is different. Mrs. Herring's grandson Pieter, Jos' best friend, is fourteen years old now, old enough to leave school and fulfill his dream of becoming a herring fisherman like all the Tals before him. However, Mrs. Herring, who lost Pieter's father and his grandfather when their boat went down in a storm, is determined that Pieter is one Tal the sea won't take away. She has apprenticed him to a carpenter.

Pieter is, of course, desperately unhappy, and soon after the girls arrive, he tells Jos he has decided to run away.

It is a miserable two weeks for Jos. She feels torn between her love for Mrs. herring and her loyalty to Pieter, who trusts her not to tell anyone his plans. Her feelings are even more divided because Pieter has promised her his wonderful dog Wolf as soon as he leaves.

But Wolf is a dog of the dunes and the sea, and he hates the leash Jos forces him to wear when she starts training him for life in the city. He puts up more and more resistance, making Jos lose patience—until finally she explodes in a burst of anger.

In spite of the generation between them, Jos and Mrs. Herring discover that they have much to teach each other as they both struggle to understand that you cannot hold too tightly onto those you love. 

From the dust jacket