It is 1911, and the coming of the railroad to the Canadian Rockies brings a parade of newcomers to the Bow Valley -- coal miners, scientists, runaway aristocrats and remittance men. Among them is poacher Herbie Wishart. Herbie reinvents himself as a trail guide in the town of Gateway and becomes an outfitter for a fossil-hunting expedition headed by a prominent American archaeologist. Along for the trip are Hodgson's adult children, mopey Humphrey and the captivating Isabel, with whom Herbie strikes up a campside alliance. But when an early snowstorm hits and trailside grudges come to a head, the expedition mysteriously disappears. Despite all efforts from that year on to solve, or bury, the mystery, the disappearance will haunt Gateway, and define the futures of Herbie Wishart and his stubbornly female descendants.
|