Set in Niagara Falls, Ontario, in the summer of 1889. The story traces the interwoven lives of Patrick, a chronically ill clerk and would-be poet; blustery military historian and Americaphobe David MacDougal; his eccentric wife, Fleda, who spends her days in the woods, reading Browning's poetry; and Maude, the undertaker's widow with a mute four-year-old son.