In this powerful novel for mature readers, Maxine Trottier transports the reader to the summer of 1956, and the small town of Erie View, a haven for teenagers. Summer jobs are plentiful, and there’s always action on the beach or the main drag. Life is cool. But Erie View is a town of shifting layers. They drift by turns, scarcely touching, then jarring painfully: fathers and grandfathers try to adjust to quiet lives after an eternity of action overseas, women struggle to remake marriages and return to their kitchens, and teenagers with far too much freedom live the secret lives of youth.

This is sixteen-year-old Gordon Westley’s world. But it’s about to change once tragedy strikes his family and forces Gordon to explore the darkest, as well as the sweetest, side of human emotions.

Part mystery, part love story, acclaimed author Maxine Trottier weaves a spellbinding portrait of small-town Ontario dealing with its loss of innocence and coming of age in a changed world....

Quebec, 1703. In this rough town, indien slaves are routinely mistreated. As Cecile Chesne watches the branding iron burn into young Lesharo's flesh, she knows she must act. Defying convention, the headstrong girl buys the slave's freedom and treats him as an equal. Lesharo is Pawnee -- the People of the Wolf. Sworn to protect Cecile, he accompanies her and her father, a coureur de bois, as they leave Quebec for a perilous journey to the new fort at Detroit. Fort society, however, makes Cecile and Lesharo miserable. Torn between two worlds, they can only be free in the wild. But freedom will not come easily. One terrible night, Cecile is forced to make a dreadful choice ......