in 1934 the people of inishmaan learn that the hollywood director robert flaherty is coming to the neighboring island to film a documentary no one is more excited than cripple billy an unloved boy whose chief occupation has been grazing at cows and yearning for a girl who wants no part of him for billy is determined to cross the sea and audition for the yank and as news of his audacity ripples through his rumorstarved community the cripple of inishmaan becomes a merciless portrayal of a world so comically cramped and meanspirited that hope is an affront to its order