Once upon a time there were nine distant islands, known as the Azores, to which one could only arrive after endless boat trips, and from which one could only leave after losing the fear of facing the vastness of the sea. It is this place - either real, or imagined, that the cineast pretends to reach when embarking in her peculiar voyage aboard the fast and modern ferries that now connect these islands of the Atlantic. In her trip, she finds old sea stories, pages from lost diaries, and ancient photographs that hypnotise her: there are horizons teeming with boats, commanders and quartermasters, there are pianos in the first class parlours, cattle that travels near the third and travelling salesmen, there are military, many students, some affairs and a lot of nausea, there are birth on board and days of Saint Vapour, there are storm and a terrible fear of death.