Clara lives in her family home in the rural community of Whitfield, near Toronto, Ontario, after her father's death, while Nora moves to New York to pursue a glamorous career in radio soap operas.

Their mother had been known to wander off frequently to the grave of her first-born child, so Clara cannot completely dismiss the death as accidental.

Clara now lives the simple life of a school teacher, she plays piano and composes poems, although she generally burns the latter after writing them.

She is an independent woman who finds it difficult to live freely in a traditional rural community, especially as she realizes she has lost all faith in God.

She is averse to the technological advances of the time, refusing to get a telephone for years and only accepting a radio from her sister as it was a Christmas present.

Nora convinces Clara to come with her and her latest beau to Italy for a month, and they witness firsthand the growing military presence of Mussolini's regime.

The epilogue is written by her daughter Elizabeth, outlining Clara's expulsion from teaching, and search for work while raising a child alone.

"[6] The novel was presented with the 2001 Governor General's Awards for English-language fiction having been shortlisted along with Life of Pi (by Yann Martel), Dragons Cry (by Tessa McWatt), The Stone Carvers (by Jane Urquhart), and Salamander (by Thomas Wharton).

The award was judged by novelist David Adams Richards, author Joan Clark, and journalist Robert Fulford.