The book is divided into three sections: The Edge of the Sea, The Gull's Way, and River and Sea. Each section focused primarily on one animal and followed it through a generation life cycle, including migrations; each section also focused primarily on one of the three great breeding grounds of the northeastern seaboard of the US: Cape Cod, Long Island Sound and the Chesapeake. In all of the sections, Carson told the story of the lives of the food chain in those areas. She personalized her "lead characters" a little but not too much.

One of the things I was aware of as I read the book is that Carson wrote before we had begun to seriously lose our sea-based populations. She described some exploitive and wasteful fishing techniques but the world she described was still full of lives and unpolluted.

I learned a lot, I valued the read, I would be willing to read the book again. I was not, however, blown away by the writing. I rated the book 3.5 stars. ( )