This group of short stories relates to the time when author Henry H. Woodward, Jr. was growing up on the Merrimack River in Salisbury, Massachusetts, during the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and '50s. He grew up in a commercial fishing family, which was based in a home on Rings Island, near the head of the Merrimack River estuary,
2 miles from the ocean. Woodward's family has a long history on the estuary. Each of these stories, based on true events, stem from the author's being raised as the middle one in this family on Rings Island on the Merrimack River.