Robert Donnell is a man with an unusual occupation. He is the Carilloneur in the Dominion of Canada Peace Tower in Ottawa. Unseen to the visitors , he serenades them from his room high in the tower with 53 carillon bells ranging in weight from ten pounds to eleven tons.

This is a story of men against the sea. On the edge of the great sea lanes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence lies a tiny archipelago which is gradually shrinking from the ceaseless nibbling of the tides. Here, on the Magdalen Islands, live 10 000 sturdy fisherfolk, descended from fifteen Acadian families who, two hundred years ago, fled the threat of deportation. The film portrays the frugal but independent existence of these people and their relentless struggle to wrest a livelihood from a sea which reaches almost to their doors.