When Canadian miner Clarence Potter moves to Maine in 1897 to make his fortune working the Oxford County pegmatite mines, he finds himself immersed in a welcoming community of native Mainers. One exception is widow Aphia Stevens, an herbalist who has not been able to escape her personal demons. She makes life difficult for Potter and his new wife from Massachusetts, and for the family of successful dressmaker Lizzie Millett. The story takes place with a backdrop of the Maine mining scene at the turn of the twentieth century.

By Robert W. Spencer