The structure is one of vignette-like character studies of one man (actually five distinct men, all with the same soul) who keeps making the same relationships and mistakes throughout his lifetimes.

He is the master in this life, his wife from the first incarnation shipwrecked with him as his spurned lover, and the raider who spirited her away is her steadfast friend.

In the fifth incarnation, Hector is a modern man in New York, paying the consequences of cowardly indecision, and gaining the strength to address the children who he lost lifetimes ago.

After poor test screenings, Warner Bros. instructed Bill Forsyth to trim 40 minutes from the film, as well as add narration and a happy ending.

[5] Janet Maslin of The New York Times was more positive, declaring, "Aiming high and falling short of his own mark, Mr. Forsyth remains a film maker of vivid, unpredictable imagination.