Synopsis

Set in a waterfront bar, the play is about Harry Bales, a seaman who, when on shore leave, usually heads for the "Sea Horse," the bar run by Gertrude Blum, the heavy, unsentimental proprietor. Their relationship is purely physical and, as the play begins, they have never confided their private yearnings to each other. Harry returns with a dream to buy a charter fishing boat and to have a son by Gertrude. She in turn, has made her life one of hard work. She has encased her heart behind a facade of toughness, utterly devoid of sentimentality, because of a failed marriage.