The lives of four Nova Scotia sisters in the early years of the 20th century on the isolated island of Cape Breton. Gifted, bright and beautiful, their lives are blighted by the heavy hand of their father and the mental dissolution of their mother. Tragedy and horror strike, but sisterly love, sometimes twisted and destructive, survives. Told in bold, beautiful language, jaunty and almost musical, their lives are brilliantly, emotionally rendered with exquisite empathy and pathos. A beautiful book, that looks unflinchingly at things that are difficult to read, it is nonetheless always impossible to put down.