The story revolves around the lives of Caribbean fishermen in the island of St. Lucia. The main protagonists are the fishermen Achille, Philoctete, Hector, and Seven Seas (Omeros); Helen, a native woman and the love interest of Achille and Hector -- in many ways a center of the story and identified with the island itself; a British farmer/ landowner by the name of Dennis Plunkett and his Irish wife Maud; the local bar owner and healer, Ma Kilman; and the narrator himself who is a poet and native of St. Lucia.