Geordie MacMurdo is a widowed lawyer living and practising in Isla, a Scottish-Canadian town located just north of Winnipeg. One of his clients, a Ukrainian rancher, apparently commits suicide, but Geordie suspects another cause, perhaps murder. The principal suspect is the town's mayor, Dugald Campbell, who is Geordie's lifelong adversary. The story takes place in 1983, when the French language crisis was raging in Manitoba. Poetry, local colour, and Manitoba and Scottish history enliven the narrative.