Small family on river, quiet and shallow (8)
I believe the answer is:
skindeep
'shallow' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'small family on river quiet' is the wordplay.
'small' becomes 's' (abbreviation - e.g. clothes size).
'family' becomes 'kin' (synonyms).
'on' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'river' becomes 'dee' (River Dee).
'quiet' becomes 'p' (music symbol for 'piano', ie soft or quiet).
's'+'kin'+'dee'+'p'='SKINDEEP'
'and' is the link.
(Other definitions for skindeep that I've seen before include "Superficial" , "shallow" .)