i
- Philoctete, a fisherman on St. Lucia, tells a group of tourists the dramatic tale of cutting trees to make canoes—and then, for extra money, he shows them a festering wound on his shin that he got from a rusted anchor.
- Walcott explains the mytho-religious significance of the laurel wood where they stand, alluding to the colonization of the island by Europeans.
ii
- The scene shifts to another fisherman, Achille, who is chopping down a tree for a canoe.
- Walcott equates the trees to the old gods that used to rule the island before colonization—now, the gods are falling everywhere.
- We see Achille chiseling out the logs for a canoe, and then flash-forward to the finished pirogue on the sand being blessed by a priest.
- Achille's canoe is called In God We Troust [sic], his own version of the motto.
iii
- Just before dawn, Achille makes ready to begin his day on the sea.
- He meets the other fishermen at the depot, where they sit drinking absinthe.
- Achille finds happiness in this time of the day, when he is waiting to become one with the sea.