It's the summer of 1956, and Rusty Macken is eager to leave rural life on Vancouver Island for the mainland and university. He dreams of graduating to Hollywood and making movies. But escaping his large, rambunctious family will not be easy.

First, there's Glory's funeral to endure. This glamorous city girl who fell for the wildest Macken of them all has died in tragic circumstances, leaving behind a widower whose reputation for outrageous behaviour has everyone anxious to see what form his mourning will take.

Scores of Mackens and their relatives, neighbours, and friends assemble at the site of the burned-down seaside hotel that was once the family base. Here, at the picnic that follows the service in town (where Toby, the grieving husband, fails to burn down the chapel but manages to stir the entire town into an uproar) the mourners exchange tales of the beautiful city girl who never quite adapted to their country ways.

Since many of the Mackens are great storytellers, their conversations revive a good deal of family history, including the time Glory arrived in the midst of an earthquake. But eventually it becomes clear that mere talk will never be enough. Some significant gesture must be made. Being Mackens, however, they don't know when to stop.

1. Rusty, who has his own reasons for mourning, may wish to escape his family but the demands of reckless Uncle Toby and the seductive events of Glory's funeral will not make it easy. By the time the sun comes up on the following day, Rusty may have participated in something of a miracle. At the very least, he will have been forced to confront the uneasy secrets of his own heart.