The Highlands of Scotland. A fight outside the village hall. Robert Menzies lies dead and Allan Innes flees to the hills, pursued by Robert's brother. An old friend, Sandy Ross, tries to prevent the inevitable blood hunt.
A bereaved brother is troubled by memories of his twin who died at sea. Having returned to his childhood home, a Christmas celebration with his brother’s widow and her son goes horribly awry, as dark secrets and sibling rivalries return to haunt them - before the past can be laid to rest.
A profile from 1972 of celebrated Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid on the occasion of his 80th birthday. In this film he talks about his uncompromising life and the ideas and circumstances that have shaped its progress.
The first part of Bill Douglas' influential trilogy harks back to his impoverished upbringing in early-'40s Scotland. Cinema was his only escape - he paid for it with the money he made from returning empty jam jars - and this escape is reflected most closely at this time of his life as an eight-year-old living on the breadline with his half-brother and sick grandmother in a poor mining village.