As a child, Sydney Henderson pushes Connie Devlin off a church roof and vows never to raise his hand or voice against another person again.

Roy Henderson is framed by coworkers for arson at McVicer's mill and sentenced to three years in prison despite his innocence.

Roy Henderson dies in prison from pneumonia after McVicer refuses mercy when Sydney walks two hundred miles to plead on his father's behalf.

Sydney Henderson buys a large collection of paperback books, gives up drinking, and becomes thoroughly self-educated.

Elly agrees to marry Sydney Henderson despite community disapproval and friends warning her against the relationship.

Mat Pit, Connie Devlin, and Rudy Bellanger frame Sydney for the bridge explosion that kills Trenton Pit.

Isabel Young defends Sydney at his inquest and proves he cannot drive a truck, securing his full acquittal.

A seventeen-thousand-dollar back-tax bill arrives, forcing Sydney to leave his family and travel north to a labor camp.

Lyle tells Sydney he is ashamed of him; they fight, Sydney is cut on Lyle's knife, and he departs the next morning.

Elly Henderson dies from environmental illness caused by McVicer's mill toxins while Sydney is still traveling home.

Lyle breaks into Connie Devlin's house intending to kill him and instead finds Connie attempting to hang himself.

Connie confesses to stealing Sydney's wages and boots and abandoning him to die alone in a snowstorm.

Percy Henderson is struck and killed by Mat Pit's fleeing car while carrying his dying dog through a storm.

After McVicer's death, it is revealed that Elly was his illegitimate daughter, making Lyle and Autumn his rightful heirs.

Lyle tracks Mat Pit to a boarding house and finds him dying of bone cancer and asking forgiveness.

Three generations of the Henderson family are tested by poverty, injustice, and an unbreakable refusal to retaliate. Roy Henderson is destroyed by his employer McVicer and dies in prison, leaving his son Sydney to build a life on pacifism, books, and love for Elly. Sydney's vow of non-violence makes the family easy targets for community scapegoating, culminating in a false accusation over a bridge explosion that kills Trenton Pit. Though lawyer Isabel Young secures Sydney's acquittal, a crippling tax debt forces him to leave his family for years, during which Elly dies from illness caused by McVicer's toxic mill. Lyle, consumed by guilt and grief, discovers that Connie Devlin abandoned his father to die in the snow, while young Percy is killed by Mat Pit's fleeing car on the same terrible night. The novel closes with McVicer's death revealing Elly as his illegitimate daughter and a dying Mat Pit finally offering Lyle an apology.

The Henderson family's suffering and survival across three generations.

McVicer unjustly fires Roy Henderson for following McVicer's own instructions to poach salmon, destroying the family's livelihood.

Dr. David Scone condescendingly turns Sydney away from pursuing a university education, denying him any path to upward mobility.

The Pit family spikes Sydney's drink with LSD, causing him to walk to Elly's house and declare his love for her.

Elly visits Sydney's book-filled house, cleans it while he works, and tells him she will marry him.

Cynthia Pit falsely claims Sydney fathered her unborn child; the baby is later born stillborn at Christmas.

Sydney is falsely accused of stealing smelts and willingly atones by returning them to Connie Devlin the following day.

The Henderson family is overlooked and receives no Christmas charity box despite being listed among families in need.

Gerald Dove investigates McVicer's mill and finds the affected families are each owed fifty thousand dollars in restitution.

Rudy Bellanger sexually assaults Elly at McVicer's house, and McVicer wrongly accuses Elly of stealing five hundred dollars.

McVicer offers Sydney work building a bridge and hires Elly to work in his house, bringing the family temporary income.

Social services temporarily place Lyle and Autumn in separate foster homes during Elly's pregnancy, dividing the Henderson children.

Percy Henderson is born into the family's extreme poverty while Cynthia Pit separately gives birth to Rudy Bellanger's daughter, Teresa May.

Lyle steals the church chalice and Mat Pit returns it to the church for a reward, splitting the money with Lyle.

Penny Porier defies her family to testify publicly against McVicer's pesticides and dies at eighteen from the illness they caused.

Cynthia Pit uses power of attorney over a frail McVicer to replace the will naming Elly's children as his heirs.

This pool traces the social and institutional forces that grind the Henderson family down at every turn. From McVicer's unjust dismissal of Roy to his denial of Sydney's chance at education, the family is blocked from advancement at every stage. Sydney meets and marries Elly despite the community's hostility, and the couple is steadily targeted through false accusations of paternity, theft, and moral depravity by their neighbors the Pits. McVicer's toxic mill poisons the community while Gerald Dove's investigation slowly reveals the depth of the injustice, and Rudy Bellanger's assault on Elly leads to her wrongful dismissal. The birth of Percy and the temporary foster placement of the older children mark the family at its most vulnerable, while Lyle's theft of the church chalice and Penny Porier's death signal the community's broader moral collapse. The pool ends with Cynthia Pit's brazen attempt to steal McVicer's estate through a forged will, setting up the novel's violent climax.

The community forces and social failures that shape the Hendersons' fate.

A dying Roy Henderson asks Sydney to walk to McVicer's home and beg for mercy on his behalf.

Elly goes on an arranged date with the recently jailed Mat Pit, rejects him, and subsequently meets Sydney Henderson.

Men harass the Henderson family on their walk home from midnight mass until Jay Beard drives them off with his truck lights.

Sydney advocates for Connie Devlin to regain his job after Connie is fired for incompetence, and receives no thanks in return.

Connie Devlin publicly ridicules Sydney after rumors spread through the community about Elly's alleged theft at McVicer's house.

Constable Morris takes the threatening letters sent to Sydney and declares that Sydney must have fabricated them himself.

Mat Pit brings one of Sydney's novels into court and falsely claims it proves Sydney sexually abused his brother Trenton.

Sydney gets drunk at a gas station and publicly apologizes about Trenton, which the community misinterprets as a murder confession.

Sydney is shot through the wall of his house; Lyle finds the shell but Rudy Bellanger confiscates it to suppress evidence.

Lyle punches a teacher who suspended Cheryl Voteur, destroying his chance to finish school and secure work from McVicer.

Lyle sets fire to McVicer's general store at Griffin Porier's request, deepening his moral entanglement in the town's corruption.

Constable John Delano reopens the bridge investigation and tells Lyle that the truth about Sydney's case genuinely matters.

Father Porier reveals to Lyle that Isabel Young and Deidre Whyne have been discovered to be Elly Henderson's sisters by McVicer.

Mat Pit and Rudy break into McVicer's house to steal his safe; Rudy is shot while trying to protect the old man.

Autumn's play about the Escuminac disaster wins a prize at the provincial drama festival in the aftermath of Percy's death.

This pool focuses on the pivotal decisions, betrayals, and discoveries that redirect the story's course at key moments. Beginning with Roy's desperate plea for Sydney to seek mercy, the events trace the origins of the Henderson family's persecution through Elly's rejection of Mat Pit and the community's accumulated hostility toward Sydney. The inquest becomes a battlefield of perjury and suppressed truth as Constable Morris and Mat Pit conspire to destroy Sydney's reputation through fabricated evidence and false testimony. Lyle's escalating rebellion—punching a teacher, burning a store, drinking—mirrors his father's downfall in reverse, trading pacifism for destructive rage. Constable Delano's reopening of the bridge case and Father Porier's revelation about Elly's true parentage finally begin to shift the moral balance. The pool closes with Mat and Rudy's violent break-in at McVicer's house and Autumn's artistic triumph at the drama festival, contrasting destruction with the fragile possibility of redemption through art.

The hidden truths, moral turning points, and betrayals driving the Henderson tragedy.