"On the Sea" depicts a stormy nighttime crossing of Lake Van, where the boatman, Toros, reveals his bitter frustration to the narrator. He describes the cruel irony of fate, observing that the sea seems to spare the unjust cargo of tax collectors while mercilessly drowning the boats carrying the honest harvests of the poor peasants . It is a story of profound social injustice and man's feeling of helplessness against a seemingly indifferent nature.