With a nonchalance earned by a thousand prior landings, the ferryman eases his craft into the slip adjoining the lighthouse where his friend, the lighthouse keeper, will greet him with a fresh pot of tea as he has almost daily for several years. This time on the short passage from the town wharf he brings a passenger along with the usual cargo of fresh groceries and newspapers. His old friend has finally done what he had promised for years and thrown his life savings into the procurement of a mail-order bride -- a chatty and, if the short journey is any indication, somewhat feisty nineteen-year-old. The skies are clear and the sail across the harbor was remarkably calm on glassy waters, but the ferry captain sees troubled seas ahead.