Set in a mining town in southern Illinois, the plot revolves around John Barrington Ashley, who is accused of murdering his neighbor Breckenridge Lansing.

He then escapes to Chile, where he assumes the identity of a Canadian named James Tolland and finds work in the copper mining industry.

Ashley's daughter, Lily, also assumes a fake name and becomes a famous singer in Chicago, later moving to New York.

At the end of the book, it is revealed that a group of Native Americans, one of whom was friends with Roger, is responsible for helping Ashley escape his execution.

George feared for his mother's safety, and consequently killed his father and then ran away to San Francisco, and later Russia, to work as an actor.

All other beginnings and endings are arbitrary conventions — makeshifts parading as self-sufficient entireties… The cumbrous shears of the historian cut out a few figures and a brief passage of time from that enormous tapestry.