Betty Churcher wrote and illustrated this story about Adam and Sarah as a way to talk to young readers about the paintings of the great British artist, JMW Turner. The boy, called Adam was probably a real boy sketched by Turner on Scarborough beach; but Churcher has imagined Sarah's frightening experience of a shipwreck, painted by Turner from newspaper reports of the loss of a convict ship on its way to New South Wales. 

Adam and Sarah are given the magical skill of being able to jump out of their paintings to explore other works of art by Turner.