SYNOPSIS

The Shuck is the story of Constance, a weathered hard-working captain and resident of an old oyster boat that sits at a crumbling dock near a rural port town, Shellpile, New Jersey. Set during the tumultuous year of 1974, both she and the rusty old vessel have seen better days, yet they persist. An old black-and-white TV broadcasts news-reports announcing the sudden end of one presidency and the beginning of another. Meanwhile, this remote community seems worlds away from such events and is more concerned with making a meager living. Anthony, a tough old retired fisherman, tries to impress Constance with romantic gestures, but she shows little interest in this side of him. Nevertheless, she tolerates him and allows him onboard to help take her mind off of her son who was recently lost at sea. When Constance’s long-estranged younger daughter Gail, a free-spirited and opinionated bohemian, arrives out of the blue to bunk-up on the boat, the two are forced to face their history together and the events that split the family many years earlier. After vandals paint “Good Riddance” across the side of the Constance's boat, the details of her son’s life as a miscreant and his impact on the family come to light putting the last pieces of their world at risk of sinking into the muddy grey water below.