Atlantic Affair is a description of Otway Waller's single-handed voyage made in 1930 following the route of his friend and gun-runner Conor O'Brien's circumnavigation, in which he demonstrated the value of the self-steering system he invented, the first to enable a yacht to run unattended before the wind. It introduces the reader to a brave man, whose journey would fulfill many landlubber dreams today.

It also explains the final and shocking cause of the break-up of Otway's marriage. Otway, who is seriously ill with a divorce pending, decides to return to Ireland to face his wife Muriel and his son Peter. To understand these three characters, we need to go back to Otway's and Muriel's courting and Peter's childhood. Who better to tell this story than Peter? In 1930 Otway is in the Canary Islands suffering from Canary Fever. He decides to postpone his voyage on the Imogen and return to Ireland. With his marriage to Muriel over, he finds a new companion who becomes his second wife.

His departure from Ireland is traumatic and his new life in England is a mixture of happiness raising a new family and stress as he moves towards bankruptcy.