On a spring morning in 1932, young Karl and Mary Adare arrive by boxcar in Argus, North Dakota. Orphaned in a most peculiar way, Karl and Mary look for refuge to their mother's sister Fritzie, who, with husband Pete, runs a butcher shop. So begins an exhilarating forty year saga brimming with unfogettable characters: Ordinary Mary, who causes a miracle, Seductive Karl, who lacks Mary's gift for survival. Sita, their lovely, distrubed, ambitious cousin. Wallace Pfef, a town leader bearing a lonely secret. Celestine James, a mixed-blood Chippewa, and her daughter, Dot. Theirs is a story grounded in the tenacity of relationships, the magic of natural events, and the unending mystery of the human condition.
