Among Cannery Row's flophouses, honkytonks, scattered lots and sardine canneries dwells the quaintest crowd of flotsam and jetsam ever washed up on the shore of Monterey Bay, California.
Lee Chong, grocer and occasional creditor; Dora Flood and her girls at the Bear Flag Restaurant; Mack and the boys, casual labourers with reputations to keep; and Doc, loner, philanthropist and fount of all wisdom, the man for whom everyone wants to do a good turn, but who usually ends up paying. With all these characters in the Row, life becomes an exuberant pageant of discord and joy.