Build a movie plot around this: What does Howie find ? a society that worships the old pagan, Celtic gods of their ancestors
Sergeant Neil Howie of the West Highland Police receives an anonymous letter requesting his presence on Summerisle, a remote Hebridean island famed for its popular and unusually abundant fruit produce. A young girl named Rowan Morrison has been missing for a number of months and her mother is being uncooperative with enquiries. Due to the island's isolation it is unlikely she could have left by herself, abduction is suspected.Howie, a devout and celibate Christian, travels by seaplane to the island and is profoundly disturbed to find a society that worships the old pagan, Celtic gods of their ancestors. Couples copulate openly in the fields, children are taught in school of the phallic importance of the maypole, toads are placed in the mouth to cure whooping cough, and the island has no Christian ministers or priests. Its church and graveyards have long been deconsecrated and are now used for the idiosyncratic burial rituals of the locals, who believe in re-incarnation.In the course of his investigation, Howie encounters difficulty in extracting information from the islanders, who claim never to have heard of Rowan, and whose own mother insists does not exist. Rooming at The Green Man Inn, where he is introduced to the beautiful young daughter of the landlord, Willow, Howie notices a series of photographs celebrating the island's annual harvests adorning the wall of the bar with each photograph featuring a young girl, the May Queen. The latest photograph is missing due to it being "broken". No negative exists.After discovering a grave bearing Rowan Morrison's name in the cemetery, Howie's search eventually brings him into contact with the island's community leader, Laird and de facto figurehead Lord Summerisle, who explains to Howie the island's recent history and culture. Summerisle's grandfather, a distinguished Victorian scientist, developed several new strains of fruit that he believed could prosper in Scotland's climate given the proper conditions. Drawn to Summerisle's unique combination of fertile,...