Mysteries surround the victim, a Frenchman named Laurent Jammett who once worked for the Hudson Bay Company. But in this lonely outpost on the edge of the world, everyone harbors a secret -- including Jammett's neighbor Mrs. Ross, her teenage son, Francis, and William Parker, the enigmatic half-breed trapper who sets out with her in search of the truth. Much has been made of the fact that this gorgeous set piece, with its perfectly described North American landscape, was written by an agoraphobic author who never set foot in Canada.