It is 1925 and Prohibition is the law. Jake Chichester is the son of an Amityville, L.I., bayman caught between the memories of the disappearing simple life of his deceased father, clamming the Great South Bay, and the unwelcome realities of modern 1920s America. Against a background of family alcohol abuse and local prejudice, Jake steps in to defend his friends, turned rum-runners, and the traditions of the Amityville baymen, from a Coast Guard petty officer bent on taking them down to further his career. Jake becomes personally involved with the chief petty officer and their encounters escalate culminating in a fiery final confrontation out on the bay.