[1] The two principal characters are a widower, Lexie, and his daughter, Laura, who live in Derry.
Self-taught, Laura enters a dance contest across the River Foyle in a Catholic district.
Ruth Barton writes of the film's structure, "Symbolically, the film illustrates its theme of bridging divides – between father and daughter, Protestant and Catholic traditions, life and death – by the device of the boat Lexie (B. J. Hogg) pilots across the Foyle to and from his job, itself a mixed workplace.
Finally, Laura performs in a Féis (dancing competition) in honour of which the boat is decked out in red, white, and blue bunting.
[4] The film was included on the ALA Notable Children's Videos list in 1999.