Kate Morrison, a young woman in her late 20s, looks back at the tragedies and struggles that lie at the heart of her childhood years in a backwoods northern Ontario farming community. Kate's parents died in an automobile accident when she was seven years old, and her older brothers Luke and Matt took charge of Kate and her infant sister Bo. Their fortunes were paired with those of the luckless Pye family, a self-destructive clan who live just up the road.