Leaving their Welsh hill farm behind Nick Ros & their children arrive on the little-known island of Ikaria in 1978 having impulsively boarded the first ferry leaving Athens Escape to Ikaria tells the story of how they become involved with the islanders & their way of life Nick tries his hand at anything to get by night fishing out in the Aegean unloading the potato boats from Samos mixing cement for wayward house-builder Datsun Jim & tending the gardens of the old monastery where a solitary nun Sister Ulita controls the village's water supply