When Lillian Beckwith advertised for a secluded place in the country, she received a letter with the following unusual description of an isolated Hebridean croft: 'Surely it's that quiet even the sheeps themselves on the hills is lonely and as to the sea it's that near as I use it myself everyday for the refuals...' Her curiosity aroused, Beckwith took up the invitation.

A climbing holiday has brought David Jones to the West Coast of Scotland. Fate has introduced him to Donald. As the days grow into weeks, he finds that fishing for lobster and herring is unlike anything he has done before. As he progresses from being a Green Hand to a practised fisherman, David takes to his new life with relish. The days of his strict chapel-going home in Wales are far behind him. Fishing has become his one obsession