Bill is out of options. Unemployed, alone and returning to the raucous seas of Northern California, the only home he knows, he takes a loan out at the bank and pours his last cent into his final chance for redemption: a tired old boat without a name. Although "pitted with rust" with "the cancer of salt corrosion gnawing at the copper engine parts" Bill purchases the WWII craft, warts and all, hoping he can eventually turn her into a solid charter. After encountering his old friend Ike, an antiquated, blistering sailor with a penchant for cigarettes, whiskey and danger, and Tom, an eager neophyte with the edge to match them both, they concoct a plan to make them whole. Taking their chances on the newly christened Skate, the three unlikely souls embark on a risky expedition into Baja, Mexico to fish for albacore.

Imbued with the tainted soul of Jim Harrison and the artistry of Patrick O'Brien, A Fitting Epitaph is an elegiac, mournful, but powerful and brutal journey into the heart of men whose livelihoods and souls depend on the mysterious moods of the Pacific.