Alden Nowlan survived rural poverty to become the winner of Canada's 1967 Governor General's Award for poetry. His empathy with ordinary people ran throughout his work as poet, journalist, short-story writer, novelist and playwright. His writing is admired far beyond his native Maritimes, but he never forgot his roots, which he drew on for inspiration. This film, shot just before his death in 1983, records him reminiscing and reading from his work.