In 1922, as returned soldiers clear the land they were given on Vancouver Island, the spectre of the First World War lingers in everyone's mind. Johanna Seyerstead waits for her missing-in-action husband to return; Wyatt Taylor has crossed the country on horseback on a hopeless quest; and Matt Pearson is haunted by the death of one of his men, shot in France as a deserter. A riveting exploration of the dark, brooding presence of the First World War in the lives of the inhabitants of a "soldier's settlement" on Vancouver Island.