A semi-documentary based on the lives of two friends living on the remote Shetland island of Foula. It shows their struggles with the harshness of isolation and the everyday hurdles of love and survival. In 1978 director Michael Powell added a new (colour) introduction and epilogue to the film which was re-titled `Return to the Edge of the World'.

Lancashire bootmaker Henry Horatio Hobson (Charles Laughton) keeps a tight rein on his three daughters, until his eldest, Maggie (Brenda De Banzie), marries his assistant Willie Mossop (John Mills) and sets him up in his own bootmaking firm. To Hobson's consternation, Willie has soon become his father-in-law's main business rival.