Cannery Row has never been like anywhere else. For one thing, its people are different....

[first lines]
Narrator: [voice over] Cannery Row has never been like anywhere else. For one thing, its people are different. When the town died off, most of them failed to notice. Some say nobody would live here if they didn't have to, but there are some, like The Seer, who wouldn't live anywhere else, even if they could. Of all the people on Cannery Row, Doc is probably the best known. He makes as good a living as he needs by collecting marine animals and selling them to colleges and museums. Over the years, Doc became a pillar of the community, and its fountain of science and philosophy. He had friends he didn't even know about, and some he would never forget - friends like Mack and the boys. Mack is the elder and leader of a small group of men who have in common no families, no money and no ambition, beyond the time to discuss matters of interest but little importance. The youngest and by far the strongest of the group is Hazel. A childhood illness is said to have left him with a slightly diminished mental capacity. As a result, he had the mind of a small boy grafted to the body of a bull