Set in a logging town on the lawless Pacific coast of Washington State
at the turn of the twentieth century, a spellbinding novel of fate and
redemption--told with a muscular lyricism and filled with a cast of
characters Shakespearean in scope--in which the lives of an ill-fated
family are at the mercy of violent social and historical forces that
tear them apart.
Keen to make his fortune, Jacob Ellstrom, armed with his medical kit and
new wife, Nell, lands in The Harbor--a mud-filled, raucous coastal town
teeming with rough trade pioneers, sawmill laborers, sailors, and
prostitutes. But Jacob is not a doctor, and a botched delivery exposes
his ruse, driving him onto the streets in a plunge towards alcoholism.
Alone, Nell scrambles to keep herself and their young son, Duncan, safe
in this dangerous world. When a tentative reunion between the couple--in
the company of Duncan and Jacob's malicious brother, Matius--results in
tragedy, Jacob must flee town to elude being charged with murder.
Years later, the wild and reckless Duncan seems to be yet another of The
Harbor's hoodlums. His only salvation is his overwhelming love for
Teresa Boyerton, the daughter of the town's largest mill owner. But
disaster will befall the lovers with heartbreaking consequences.
And across town, Bellhouse, a union boss and criminal rabble-rouser,
sits at the helm of The Harbor's seedy underbelly, perpetuating a cycle
of greed and violence. His thug Tartan directs his pack of thieves,
pimps, and murderers, and conceals an incendiary secret involving
Duncan's mother. As time passes, a string of calamitous events sends
these characters hurtling towards each other in an epic collision that
will shake the town to its core.
