Faustus is a clerk in the St. Johns, Newfoundland department of education. He dreams of becoming ruler of Newfoundland and staging a secession from Canada. Back in the real world, Faustus' boss Robert Joy plans to indoctrinate the citizenry of Newfoundland with a cultish geometric theory known as Total Education, but Joy may be foiled at any minute by the revelation of his earlier career as a flamenco dancer.
A conservationst, stranded with his family at a Newfoundland coastal resort, flies in the face of custom and fights an entire community to prevent a trapped whale's slaughter with only the support of his wife and one of the locals.