In 1929 New England, Sexton and Honora Beecher arrange to buy the house they are renting, but when the Depression strikes their small town their hopes are dashed. Sexton goes to work at the mill and becomes involved with the plan to form a union--and events conspire to undermine the Beechers marriage as well as their financial picture. This is the third volume in Anita Shreves informal trilogy of novels that take place in a house on the coast of New Hampshire.