Based on the short story "Scotch Settlement" by Neil Paterson (previously filmed in 1953), set in Nova Scotia in 1903, the film was shot in several locations throughout Nova Scotia with dockside scenes being filmed aboard the CSS Acadia at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax.
[2] Coralee Elliott Testar's version of the story revolves around letters written by James' son to his wife and children.
Harry and Davy have brought them in a box James had carved for his son many years before.
Through these letters, James begins to find healing from his grief over the death of his son at the hands of Dutch soldiers in the Second Boer War in South Africa, deliverance from the hatred in his heart for neighboring Dutch farmers, and acceptance of his daughter's love for the village doctor who is also of Dutch heritage.
The movie's title refers to the discovery and rescue by Harry and Davy of the neighbor's baby briefly left unattended on a beach and their decision to hide and care for it themselves rather than risk their grandfather's harsh and unmerciful reaction to it.