When Clémence Hébert returns to her hometown of Cherbourg, she wants to film what remains of her father, who died in a house fire as a result of his alcoholism. A few photos, letters, family videos. By juxtaposing these archives with portraits of her relatives, she stages an encounter between past and present and attempts to reconnect with what she fled from. The camera passes from hand to hand, from parents to children, from the living to the dead... The family film is completed and the story of a lineage is revealed. Cherbourg is a port city and the men of this family are fishermen. "Le bateau du père" ("The Father's Boat") is a film about the father's grief, about childhood and paradise lost.