essie meets life head-on, and sometimes with her fists. Her fierce, indomitable spirit is tempered by humour and love. Rosalind, Jessie's daughter, has inherited her mother's dauntless spirit and her father's eye and ear for music and poetry. Solange, Rosalind's friend, must flee her inheritance - the coal slag of her backyard - for Calgary, where she can assume the disguise of a desirable woman.