In 1916, with a costly war raging in Europe, the Newfoundland Government seeks to curb spending on social support programs in order to finance the war effort. This decision leads to actions and consequences for a group of people in Fortune Bay, which saddles them with a life-and-death situation. A lightkeeper on St. Jacques Island, after witnessing the capsizing of a motorized yacht during a July storm, leads a heroic effort to rescue the local welfare officer and the owner of the vessel. In the process, a small schooner used as a floating medical clinic by a beloved doctor is rammed and sunk by a former whaling ship being used for mail and passengers. Outcomes from that event rippled through the lives of St. Jacques residents for generations. Recalled through the memories of a British naturalist and explorer, John Guille Millais, who had lived among these people, we get to meet each of them in the lives they lived.