In a small prairie town like Argue, Saskatchewan, everyone knows everybody else's business. Everyone knows that the Loney family has been barely hanging on -- the father, George, reduced to drink and despair since the loss of his farm and the death of his wife, Margaret. And that the four Loney children do not get along with George's second wife, the pious, bitter Effie. When George dies in a drunken stupor and Effie takes off with a traveling Bible...