In 1942 the USS Truxton, a ship carrying over a hundred soldiers, ran aground off the Burin Peninsula, killing most of its men. Oil and Water is the incredible true story of the sole African-American sailor of the wreck, Lanier Phillips, the first black man to be seen by the residents of St. Lawrence, Newfoundland. There, Lanier is rescued and cared for by the locals, where he is treated as a human being, and not judged by the colour of his skin. A tale of two cultures, Oil and Water is hopeful and haunting, an honest legend that still resonates with power nearly seventy years later.