One night, in the first year of their marriage, Doug suddenly turned to Chloe and said, "I don't know what would have happened to me without you. You brought my life in from chaos.".

Four years later, chaos threatens to engulf Chloe herself when she realizes that her husband is in love with another woman. Rather than join Doug on an academic sojourn in Scotland and try to win back his love, she returns to Saskatchewan, the land of her French- and Anglo-Canadian ancestors. Ironically, Chloe's avoidance of the present forces a confrontation with the past.

Amid the deeply riven conflicts of language and culture, faced with ancient hostilities and personal loss, Chloe explores the unfamiliar terrain of her own psyche, and finds and independence she has never known.