Filmed out on The Great Blasket Islands, the film tells of a young medical student who visits the Blasket Islands, off the coast of Kerry, during the holidays and becomes charmed with the place and its people. He falls in love with a local girl, who is betrothed to a local man. The two men meet and become fast friends, and the student realises the hopelessness in his love for the girl of his friend. He leaves but, after his graduation from Trinity College, he returns to cast his lot with these simple fishermen.