Set in the forties and fifties, these stories take us back to a simpler, gentler world, the one we all like to think we grew up in. The Kid at the centre of the stories is a boy on a Saskatchewan farm down Government Road from Crocus, which is on the CNR line between Tiger Lily and Conception. Jake is the hired hand who helps the Kid's mother run the farm (and who played a huge role in Canadian history, what with capturing "Looie Riel" and all), and who now keeps the Kid abreast of events in the greater world and in Crocus. This is no easy matter, for the stories reveal that Crocus is a town in constant ferment.