Plot summary

Fanny, the daughter of Honorine, a poor fishmonger in the port of Marseille in the 1930's, has always loved Marius, the handsome son of César, the headstrong proprietor of a waterfront bar. Marius, however, dreams only of the sea and has secretly made arrangements to sail away on a schooner bound for the "isles beneath the wind." On the eve of his departure, he and Fanny confess their love for each other and spend the night together. When morning comes, Marius offers to remain behind, but Fanny, knowing he would never be happy on land, sends him away. A few weeks later, Fanny learns that she is carrying Marius's child, and she turns to the elderly, widowed Panisse, a wealthy sail merchant. Delighted to marry Fanny and at long last have a son to carry on the family name and business, Panisse weds the girl. One year later, Marius, after having found his cherished isles to be nothing but "volcanic ash," returns to Marseille and tries to claim his son, Cesario. But Fanny and César explain to him that little Cesario belongs to Panisse, for it is he who has given the child the loving care that only a father can bestow. And once more Marius leaves Marseille, this time to become a garage mechanic in a nearby town. As the years pass, little Cesario inherits his father's passion for the sea, and on his 9th birthday a friend of Marius's takes the child to visit his father. As Marius embraces his son, Fanny arrives with word that Panisse is dying. From his deathbed the old man dictates a letter to César in which he asks Marius to marry Fanny.