A walker on a cold, rocky Baltic shore finds herself being watched. An eagle with a black body and a white crowned head perches on an outcrop, then follows her as she searches the shoals and picks through blueberries and arctic orchids. Day after day the bird returns, as if curious about what she has found. Over time the two form something like a friendship, and the speaker talks to the eagle while the sea rolls beside them.
The mood is quiet, tender and a little wistful. The speaker feels wonder at being noticed by a wild creature, and then sadness as her time there runs short. When she tells the eagle she will miss it, the bird flies over her head and calls once more. The speaker takes this as a gift, and the poem stresses that it was unasked for and unexpected, which makes it "all the more precious." The trailing dots and the closing line suggest she will carry this memory home with her.