In 1950, a devastating fire breaks out in Rimouski. Thomas survives the blaze, but loses his memory and is institutionalized. A shell of his former self, he pieces together a makeshift existence by becoming a gardener. Upon his release five years later, two childhood friends, Marie and Romain, hire Thomas to do their landscaping. Little do they know that they are also inviting him into their marriage, a union characterized by male dominance and female subservience. As time passes, Marie begins to see Thomas as her escape from the unendurable. In 2002, Romain and Marie's youngest daughter, Lou, returns home for the first time since running away to Chicago thirty years before. She brings along her husband Joe, who has recently suffered a brain aneurysm that has imprisoned him in his own body. Their presence reminds Marie of her own past, of the connections she never asked for and the ties she can never break.

Christiane Frenette is the author of the Governor General's Literary Award-winning novel, La Terre ferme, as well as the acclaimed novels, La nuit entiere and Apres la nuit rouge; of these three books, the first two have been translated by Sheila Fischman and are available under the titles Terra Firma and The Whole Night Through. Apres la nuit rouge won the Prix elittraire ville de Quebec in 2006. Christiane is also the author of several collections of poetry, including Ceremonie memoire, and Indigo nuit, for which she received the Prix Octave-Cremazie. Sheila Fischman is one of Canada's most distinguished and honoured literary translators. She has translated the works of Jacques Poulin, Francois Gravel, lise Turcotte, and Pascale Quiviger, among many others. For her work, she has been nominated for the Governor General's Literary Award, the Canada Council Translation Prize, and the Felix-Antoine Savard Prize, each of which she has won. In 2001, she was named to the Order of Canada in recognition of the excellence of her work. Sheila Fischman lives in Montreal.

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