When Jim Gallagher hauls the corpse of an unknown Eskimo up in his nets off the North-West Coast of Ireland he finds the murky undercurrents of his own life shift closer to the surface. Returning to his hometown of Donegal after working in the canneries of Alaska, Jim learns that, like his friends Knucky and Frances, he has yet to escape the ties of the past.

Jim's obsession with finding out who the dead man was and how he died mirrors his search to comprehend his own life and relationships. But when the hunt leads him into dangerous and unfamiliar territory it seems that rather than providing a key to Jim's future the Eskimo may prove to be his undoing.