Mike Hanson is surprised by the death of his aunt Ruth. Even more surprising is that he receives an inheritance with strings attached: pack up his city life in Toronto and move to a farmhouse in the tiny prairie village of Abbey, Saskatchewan, to pursue a career in art. If he can live the artist's life for three years, the property along with a tidy sum of cash is his; if he fails, the inheritance will be divided among several charities. Dog the Moon addresses the cultural dichotomies of urban vs. rural, good vs. evil, atheism vs. religion, art vs. pornography, the individual vs. the community, and others as it takes aim at the art of mythmaking. Although set within the tradition of Canadian novels that witness how a city dweller copes within a newfound "wilderness," Dog the Moon deviates from tradition in its existentialism and allusive explorations of the arts, pop culture, and the media as it shows how we are constantly bombarded by masses of information that serve to infiltrate and influence our thinking and behaviour.