Four boat builders join forces to build a clink boat of the type that was once predominant in the Breidafjord bay in the west of Iceland. The story of thousand years of boat building in the north unfolds as we watch them build the clink boat, starting with the keel, which had its beginning in the log boat of the stone age, and finishing with the launching. When the sails are set we are brought back to the personal histories of the builders themselves, to the past when these boats were in general use, back home where the film started. The vessel that is the film carries a variety of subjects: craftsmanship, paganism, trade history, fishing, death, celebrations. The boat reflects the ethnic history of the Nordic nations. The building of the boat forms the baseline of the film but the story of the clink boat is told by the people who appear in it, chiefly the builders, and they to an extent determine its course.