The Clock of Heaven explores issues of identity and of hope through its protagonist, Esa Withrod, an intelligent, educated young woman who is also the unwanted child of dysfunctional parents. The only bright spot in Esa's childhood was the three months she spent with her grandmother in a house by the sea (in the Maritimes) when she was seven years old. Now she is a young woman struggling over recent events in her personal life—a failed first relationship and resulting pregnancy—as well as with the legacy of her desolate upbringing. Esa is an unusual character—extremely competent but socially withdrawn and unable to establish ordinary relationships with the people around her. Her childhood has prepared her to deal with the world with endurance and resilience, but not with joy. She remains "mystified by kindness." Searching for that safe haven she knew as a child, she returns to her grandmother's house to find that it is not possible to go back. Through a spring and summer of traumatic events in what has been her family's homestead, she discovers the love of family, friendship, and the best of what people in a small community have to offer each other in times of difficulty.