First published in 1928, this Canadian classic describes the lives of the people that make up an isolated fishing community on the fictional island of Rockbound, off Nova Scotia.

The book is set just before the start of the First World War, in the opening years of the twentieth century.

This novel may be described as being of its time, but it still evokes the eternal battle between humans and their environment: the struggle of the fishermen to survive working in the harsh seas in order to earn their livings.

Frank Parker Day (1881-1951) was a native of Nova Scotia and would have been able to draw on his own life experience to describe the island of Rockbound and its inhabitants.