The Shipping News is a 2001 Canadian-Swedish-American drama film directed by Lasse Hallström, based on Annie Proulx's Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same title. It stars Kevin Spacey as Quoyle, Judi Dench as Agnis Hamm, and Julianne Moore as Wavey Prowse. Cate Blanchett, Pete Postlethwaite, Scott Glenn, Rhys Ifans, Jason Behr, and Gordon Pinsent appear in supporting roles. Plot When Quoyle was a young boy, his father, Guy, tossed him into a lake, expecting him to swim naturally. Images of flailing in water and nearly drowning often resurface in Quoyle's memory when he is under stress. Quoyle, now an ink setter at a small newspaper in Poughkeepsie, New York, lives a lonely life. He becomes infatuated with and marries a vivacious local woman named Petal. Petal is an unfaithful wife and a negligent mother to their six-year-old daughter, Bunny. Petal runs off with a lover, taking Bunny with her. Soon after, Petal and her boyfriend are killed in a car accident. The police return Bunny to Quoyle, informing him that Petal sold her to a black market adoption operation for $6,000. Shortly before those events, Quoyle's elderly parents die by suicide together. Quoyle's aunt, Agnis Hamm, arrives to pay her respects to her late brother, though her real motive is to steal Guy's ashes (which she later dumps down an outhouse hole and urinates on). Agnis is moving to the ancestral family home in Newfoundland, which has been abandoned for 44 years. Agnis agrees to stay a few more days to help Quoyle through his recent turmoil, then persuades him to move to Newfoundland with her. While struggling to build a new life, restore the derelict house, and care for Bunny, Quoyle meets Wavey Prowse, a widow whose young son, Harry, has a learning disability. Wavey and Quoyle gradually develop a deepening relationship. Wavey eventually admits she pretends to be widowed, ashamed that her philandering husband left when she was pregnant. Quoyle learns that the ancient Quoyles were pirates that ran ships aground and savagely pillaged them. When those Quoyles were driven out, they moved their house over a frozen lake to its present location, now known as Quoyle's Point. Quoyle's cousin Nolan, an old hermit, reveals that young Agnis was raped and impregnated by her teenaged brother (Quoyle's father), resulting in an abortion. Quoyle applies for an ink setter job at the Gammy Bird. Owner and publisher, Jack Buggit,