In the village of Steadman's Cove the tall, lithe, fair-haired Hannah stood out in her struggle to adapt to the traditional role of the women in northe Newfoundland. As the local Midwife, the comforter for the undoctored cove and the neighbouring hamlets along the coast, Hannah was accustomed to being called at all hours to travel by dog team and sled through the perilous night to deliver a baby, ease someone's pain, sooth someone's dying. The novel is sustained by a metaphysical magic as Hannah transcends the daring challenges of a northe outpost during the era when the island became Canada's tenth province in 1949. Tenderly women throughout the novel are sparkling threads of Hannah's love for an American surgeon with whom she closely shares the vigils with the sick.