Set in 1919, The Far Shore is about a painter based on Tom Thomson (1877–1917) and includes a cast of invented characters. Wieland’s story is a romance and a tragedy; it was not until the 1980s that scholars argued that her use of melodrama could be understood in feminist terms.

Wieland considered the film as part of a trilogy, along with Rat Life and Diet in North America, 1968, and Reason over Passion / La raison avant la passion, 1969. What unites these films is an emphasis on landscape. Wieland captures the genuine pathos that accompanies our encounters with the natural world.