The Aran Islands lie off Western Ireland. All three are small wastes of rock, trees without soil. In winter storms they are almost smothered by the sea...which, because of the peculiar shelving of the coastline, piles up into one of the most gigantic seas in the world. In this desperate environment the "man of aran," because his independence is the most precious privilege he can win from life, fights for his existence bare as it may be. It is a fight from which he will have no respite until the end of his indomitable days or until he meets his master - the sea. - Prologue in title from Man of Aran.