Young ballad singer Ruadhan watches in distress as the traditional fabric of life in his small Scottish village is inexorably eroded. With fish dying and no jobs on land, the young people are escaping to the cities. Meanwhile, the old people of the town, to whom Ruadhan feels closest and whose traditions he wants to preserve, are dying off.

A group of individuals are stranded at a small island airport when the flight from the mainland is delayed. At that moment, a stranger appears and begins telling the story of a summer romance in Venice.