The great Newfoundland storyteller has produced stories galore in this excellent saga spanning two centuries and five generations of feuding families clinging to life on the rocky coast. He animates some memorable characters including a widow who provokes the enmity of the local town bully by refusing an offer of marriage (who then is later accused of being a witch); a mute quasi holy-man drawn from the belly of a beached whale who lives among the people still reeking of rotten fish but otherwise seems to have a positive effect on the town; the itinerant Father Phelan who traipses around the province showing up at odd times to perform marriages and baptisms and who allegedly holes up for the winter with an accommodating widow; and the American doctor who washed up on their shore and stays for decades ministering his crude but lovingly applied medication to his flock. A peek at a vanished way of life of some very tough and resilient people.