Daniel Mylrea is the son of the Bishop of Man, the baron of the Isle of Man, whose temporal power is higher even than that of the Deemster, or governor. The Bishop desires Dan to become a minister, but he prefers to be a fisherman. The Deemster of Man has a son and a daughter, Mona and Ewan. Dan and Mona are in love. She consents to marry him when he can obtain her father's consent. Ewan, her brother, decides to become a clergyman, even in the face of his father's insistence that he take up business as a vocation. The Deemster opposes Dan's suit for Mona's hand because he has fallen from his high estate as the son of the Bishop by becoming a fisherman. His dislike turns to open hatred when Dan endeavors to borrow money from Ewan, whom he thought his friend, to pay off the crew of his boat. Dan had squandered his earnings of the season in drink. Ewan refuses Dan the loan, who makes him a bitter enemy by knocking him down on his taunt that spending money in drink is as bad as theft.