She was cold, she was alone, and she knew she was going to die. In the middle of an epic ice storm, Kitty Stevenson, an eccentric old woman, self-exiled to rural Canada from New York society, realizes that she is having a heart attack. She had survived Nazi Germany - she can survive this too. Her neighbors mount a heroic effort to save her. She lives to tell her tale of self-reliance, incredible wealth, poverty, and escape on the eve of a World War. Kitty is ultimately confronted by what she perceives as a personal moral failure. A strong character, Kitty Stevenson is molded by the Depression and toughened by an intense encounter with Nazi Germany. In the end, she has only one story left to tell: a tale of murder.

But, "It was war, damn it, it was war."Poplar Hill is full of characters reminiscent of E. Annie Proulx's The Shipping News, as well as Farley Mowatt's fiction, with a touch of Tinkers by Paul Harding.