Nicholas Crisp sits on a bluff in the town of Samaritan Bay, observing the sunrise on the beach below. He is joined by his dog, Soldier. Another man, Gabriel Quinn, appears on the beach. Crisp has been expecting Gabriel.

Content warning: The section of the summary covers a suicide attempt.

Each chapter of The Back of the Turtle switches between several primary characters’ perspectives.

Gabriel walks toward a cluster of rocks called the Apostles. The beach town is a familiar location, and he notes the emptiness of the once-vibrant shore and the run-down neon sign of the Ocean Star Motel. It’s low tide, and the receding waters have cleared a path to the Apostles. Gabriel plans to find a spot among the Apostles and remain there as the tide comes in, drowning himself.

Gabriel finds a seat among the rocks and produces an elk skin drum, singing a memorial song. As waves start to batter him, a black-haired girl appears in the water and grabs his ankle. Gabriel pulls her to safety on the rocks, then spots dozens of other black-haired people in the ocean. He interprets them as figures from First Nations mythology, “the first people […] who had come from the ocean when the world was new” (9).