Task: Story Composition
Input (English): Fact1: Andrew turns out to be former islander on Hirta, Fact2: Andrew 's friend Robbie Manson leave island, Fact3: Robbie is engaged to Norwegian girl called, Fact4: Robbie 's father is determined to stay, Fact5: Unbeknownst to Andrew Ruth is pregnant with child
Output (English): The film begins with a yacht passing by the remote island of Hirta see note in Production below. The yachtsman played by the director, Michael Powell finds it strange that the island looks deserted, when a book he carries mentions that it should be inhabited. His crewman Andrew Gray Niall MacGinnis tells him that his book is outdated and the island is indeed uninhabited now. Andrew tries to dissuade the yachtsman from landing, but he decides to do so anyway. After landing, they find a gravestone on the edge of a cliff, and Andrew, who turns out to be a former islander on Hirta, starts to reminisce. The remainder of the film is his flashback. Andrews friend Robbie Manson Eric Berry wants to leave the island and explore the wider world. Robbies sister, Ruth Manson Belle Chrystall, is Andrews sweetheart, and the young couple are quite willing to stay. Robbie tells Ruth and Andrew that he is engaged to a Norwegian girl called Polly, whom he had met in a brief period working outside Hirta, and intends to announce that to the other islanders on the next day at the mens assembly, the parliament. Robbies father, Peter Manson John Laurie, is determined to stay, while Andrews father, James Gray Finlay Currie, suspects that their way of life cannot last much longer. But if Robbie leaves, that will make it harder for the others because there will be one less young man to help with the fishing and the crofting. Moreover, Robbie not only intends to leave but also to propose the other islanders to do the same and evacuate Hirta. Andrew opposes that and, given the divided opinions and lack of consensus in the parliament, they decide to settle the issue with a race up a dangerous cliff without safety ropes. Andrew wins the race and Robbie falls off the cliff to his death. Ridden with guilt and shunned by Ruths father, who will now not give permission for their marriage, Andrew decides to leave the island for Lerwick on the Shetland Mainland. Unbeknownst to Andrew, Ruth is pregnant with his child. She gives birth to a girl months after he leaves and, since the mail boat only comes once a year, Andrew cannot be told of the news. The islanders send off drift wood caskets with letters to Andrew. Luckily, one of them is caught by the captain of a fishing trawler on which Andrew is about to be employed as a crewman. Andrew arrives on Hirta on the trawler amid a fierce gale, just in time to take Ruth and his newborn daughter to the mainland, as the baby is dying from diphtheria and needs a lifesaving tracheotomy. They succeed in saving the girls life and Andrew decides that since Ruth and the baby are now safe, they are not going back to Hirta. The near death of Ruths baby, plus the fact that the islands crops are failing, and peat is almost depleted and will only last to provide fuel for one more winter, are the final straws, and the islanders decide to evacuate to the mainland. Peter Manson reluctantly signs the petition for the government to assist in their evacuation and resettlement. As the island is being evacuated, Peter decides to go after a guillemots egg, for which a collector had promised to pay five pounds. The egg can be found in a nest on a steep cliff, which Peter climbs down tied to a rope. As he is climbing back up, the rope frays and Peter falls to his death. His gravestone is placed on the edge of the cliff and it was the one found by the yachtsman in the initial scenes.