Despite their different backgrounds, fisherman Pete and lawyer Philip have been friends on the Isle of Man all their lives. Pete wants to marry Kate, the daughter of the landlord at the local inn, but Kate's father doesn't think he's good enough. Pete leaves the island to seek his fortune abroad and entrusts Kate to Philip, but the two begin to feel attracted to each other. Even though the director made his film rather small many years later, ‘it is obvious that Hitchcock endowed it with considerable emotional power’ (Bryony Dixon).