In the haunting quiet of the South Carolina Lowcountry, a disgraced art critic seeks refuge. But exile to the South Carolina marshes quickly offers one last chance at relevance—if he’s willing to take down a nearly 100-year-old local art legend to do it. In The Ocean We Swim In, reputations become weapons, secrets have teeth, and the line between confession and manipulation vanishes in the tide.

The Ocean We Swim In tells the story of a recently canceled California art critic, Jack, who flees with his husband Dylan to the marshy refuge of South Carolina. There, Jack finds the opportunity to redeem his reputation—at the expense of a closeted local artist, Tommy Maybank Legare, who is about to turn 100 years old. Jack is hired to write the overview for Tommy’s upcoming centennial exhibit at the area’s most prestigious museum. Jack intends to prove his progressive credentials by exposing the racism and cultural appropriation in Tommy’s work. The interviews morph into strategic posturing for mutually assured destruction. Tommy confesses a chilling secret that prompts Jack to finally reveal to his Black husband the real reason why he was cancelled. Jack is unburdened but now Dylan must wrestle with the truth he never wanted to know.