The narrator of the story, a middle-aged professor at a Midwestern university in the United States, recalls how he often wakes up at 4 a.m., afraid that he has overslept and that his father will be waiting for him with a crowd of other men, and that they will all have to head down to the harbor. After realizing it was only a dream, the narrator then walks in the cold to an all-night restaurant, where he makes small-talk with the regulars and drinks bitter coffee. He knows the memories that wake him up at night are only “echoes and shadows.”
Jumping back in time, the narrator recalls his first memories of his family’s boat, the Jenny Lynn. He remembers his father in big rubber boats, taking him out on his first trip on the boat. He also remembers how everyone in his family was always asking questions that ended with the words “the boat,” like “Well, how did things go in the boat today?” This is the first question the narrator himself remembers asking. The narrator also recalls his mother, who was a tall, energetic woman and who came from a long line of people who had lived by the sea.
The narrator goes on to recall his old house. Most of it was kept spotless and organized by his mother, but his father’s bedroom was a mess, and some of this mess spilled into the kitchen, which everyone used. Out of all the junk the father owns, perhaps most interesting to the narrator is his large collection of paperback books, which range from pulp novels to literary classics. When he isn’t out fishing, the narrator’s father spends most of his time alone in his room, reading books and listening to the radio.
The narrator also has many older sisters who, when they are young, help his mother around the house. But shortly after each one hits puberty, they discover their father’s books. This starts a chain of events that leads to them getting jobs in a local restaurant that serves tourists. There they meet young men from out of town, and ultimately, despite their mother’s disapproval, they move away to big cities to get married. One time, the father takes some tourists out on a boat ride, then afterwards visits with the tourists at their rented cabins, gets drunk, and sings old sea shanties and cultural songs for them. The narrator has mixed feelings about the way the tourists view his father.
Eventually, all of his sisters move away, and the narrator lives alone in the house with his mother and father. The narrator’s sometimes send gifts of books for his father, and pictures of their kids for their mother, which she refuses to look at. When his father begins to get older and lay around in bed all day, the narrator must help to get the boat ready for lobster season. This leads to him deciding to quit school in order to help his family with the fishing business. His father, however, tells him he must go back to school at once. Ultimately, the narrator listens to his father, much to his mother’s anger. Shortly afterwards, his father makes a seemingly miraculous recovery and the season goes well.
During the summer, when the narrator is out of school, his maternal uncle (also his father’s fishing partner) leaves to work on a big commercial boat as he works to save up for his own boat. The narrator has come to realize that his father never much liked the fishing life, and would have preferred to have gone to college—he respects his father even more for making the sacrifices he has. The narrator steps into his uncle’s role, and promises his father he’ll stay and help with the fishing business for as long as his father lives. His father replies, “I hope you will remember what you’ve said.”
At first, the fishing is successful, and the narrator’s father acts like he’s young again. But as the year progresses, the fishing becomes more hazardous. On a particularly stormy November 21st, on what may be the last outing of the fishing season, the narrator loses track of his father during a winter squall. His father has apparently gone overboard, and there’s no way to rescue him, particularly because, like many men of his generation on the wharf, he doesn’t know how to swim.
Jumping back to the present, the narrator comments that the lobster beds off Cape Breton are still as vibrant as they ever were. He notes however, that big commercial fishing boats have tried but failed to move into the area, because they keep finding “their buoys cut adrift and their gear lost and destroyed.” Official investigations into the incidents meet resistance from the locals, and eventually the outsiders go away.
The narrator feels uneasy knowing that his mother lives alone off his father’s meager life insurance policy. She’s too proud to ask for help and resents the narrator for leaving his home and the traditional lifestyle that goes with it. She remains devoted to the sea, as she always has been.
Finally, the narrator jumps back to November 28th, a week after his father’s disappearance, when his father’s body was discovered ten miles north of the wharf. The body is badly disfigured, with part of it missing, including his father’s rubber boots. Around his father’s wrists are brass chains that he wore when he was working in order to prevent his skin from chafing, and his hair is full of seaweed.
