Carl O'Neill is back from the trenches of Europe, but he hasn't really come home. Now he's on the run - from the Army, from his family, and from himself. Until he's put off the train in the small town of Mackenzie, Saskatchewan, broke, sick and out of time.

Naomi Franklin has seen war, too, but now she's fighting a much more personal battle. Since coming home from nursing overseas, she's lost her father to illness and her innocence to rape. The stranger who's dumped off the train and into her care has her compassion, but not her trust - even though he makes her start to feel like a woman again.