Bobby was born in 1945 to his elderly parents, Andrew and Susan. Despite community disapproval of their age and open affection, the Shepherds shared a deep love sustained by a mutual sense of wonder. A flashback reveals how Andrew, a Scottish immigrant, met Susan, derailing her plan to move to Toronto, and how they built a happy, isolated life. The narrative reveals that their sense of wonder would later help them cope when Bobby died. Bobby grew up on a farm neighboring the Hopkins family and became close friends with their son, Stafford. 

The perspective then shifts to Stafford’s memories of a tense childhood, overshadowed by his older brother. As an adult in California, Stafford used a philosophical concept of virtue to justify his emotional distance from the fates of others. He concluded that his virtue couldn’t save Emmett, Bobby, or his own unnamed son.

Stafford arrives at the airport in Toronto and is met by his uncle Christy, who learned of his flight from the Shepherds’ lawyer. Christy reveals that his wife, Angela, is in the hospital in Kingston after suffering a stroke and that he plans for them to visit her on their way. As they begin the long drive, Christy updates Stafford on various community members and family. The most significant revelation is about Stafford’s brother. Stafford assumes that Emmett is in jail again, but Christy clarifies that Emmett is living in a rooming house in Portsmouth Village. Stafford internally reflects on his complicated family history, particularly a past conflict between Christy and Emmett. The two men drive toward Kingston as darkness falls and a snowstorm approaches.

The narrative provides a history of Kingston before detailing the arrival of Stafford’s Irish ancestors during the 1847 famine. His family, the Mallorys, was decimated by typhus upon arrival. The family’s father survived the crossing but died of typhus at Grosse Île; a baby survived both the crossing and quarantine only to die on the river barge. Only his great-great-grandmother Fianna survived after being separated from her brother, Curran, who died and was buried in a mass grave. Fianna was later adopted by a farmer named Hopkins, whom she eventually married, and the family name was passed down through their son, whom she named Curran Mallory Hopkins. 

In the present, Stafford and Christy argue outside the hospital. Christy insists that Stafford must take in Bobby’s orphaned grandchildren. Stafford refuses, revealing his plan to set up a trust fund for each of the four children. Disgusted by this impersonal solution, Christy walks away. Left alone, Stafford is overwhelmed by a traumatic flashback to the day Bobby died, recalling an argument that ended with Bobby walking across the ice and Stafford falling through. Stafford was rescued by Christy, while Bobby disappeared under the ice.

Stafford recalls the deep childhood friendship between him and Bobby, which began at a large rock in the field separating their family farms. Despite their families’ many differences in wealth, religion, and social standing, the boys formed an inseparable and imaginative bond. As they grew older, a significant physical contrast emerged: Stafford was a handsome, blue-eyed boy, while Bobby was unattractive and developed severe, permanent cystic acne during his adolescence. This difference became a source of conflict when Stafford’s mother expressed pity for Bobby, causing Stafford to defend his friend and declare that he preferred the warm, emotionally open atmosphere of the Shepherd household. After a girl at school named Tammy Bell cruelly taunted Bobby, calling him “toad-face,” Bobby’s mother passionately insisted that character and justice were more important than physical appearance. Stafford notes that Bobby would die young but had learned to accept himself. On the night of Bobby’s death, a grieving Stafford confessed that Bobby was always the better of the two.

At one o’clock in the morning, a police officer wakes Stafford, who’s sleeping in his car in Kingston. After questioning him about his presence near the Collins Bay Penitentiary, the officer accepts Stafford’s explanation that he’s a former local visiting on personal business and lets him go. Stafford checks into his hotel, feeling increasingly ill from his long travels from Hawaii. He sleeps poorly and is awakened at seven o’clock by a phone call from Agnes, who’s alarmed by how sick he sounds. Despite his worsening condition, Stafford is determined not to spend another night in Kingston. He mentally creates a rigid schedule for his morning, which includes driving to Napanee to meet the Shepherds’ lawyer, calling relatives, and finding Emmett.

Stafford’s youth was shaped by the shame and anxiety surrounding Emmett’s escalating alcohol addiction and arrests. The family dynamic was fractured in 1959 by the real-life case of Steven Truscott, a 14-year-old boy convicted of murder. The case caused a major rift between Stafford and his best friend. While Bobby was passionately convinced of Truscott’s innocence, Stafford’s reluctance to challenge authority led him to accept the verdict, culminating in a fistfight that temporarily ended their friendship.

One night, an intoxicated Emmett stumbled into Stafford’s room, prompting an enraged outburst in which Stafford hurled his cherished collection of china tea-birds at his brother. The next day, Stafford reconciled with Bobby, finally agreeing that Truscott was wrongly convicted. When Truscott’s death sentence was later commuted, Bobby was devastated, crying at the news. For Bobby, commutation wasn’t exoneration, and there was either full justice or none. To comfort his friend, Stafford procured beer from Emmett. The boys snuck out to a barn, where they toasted to “one hundred percent” justice for Truscott (171), renewing their bond. Later, as an adult and a successful TV executive, Stafford would produce a show where the “good guys w[o]n” (168), even as his own home life was fraught with conflict.

In present-day Kingston, a sick Stafford decides to leave town, recalling his last, painful encounter with his estranged brother. Years prior, an intoxicated Emmett had disrupted the ceremony where Stafford received an honorary doctorate. In the ensuing roadside confrontation, Emmett’s confused memories surfaced, revealing his guilt over their father’s death and a racehorse named Brenda Bee Hoover before he told Stafford to stay away for good. 

This memory triggers a deeper flashback to the traumatic day of their father’s heart attack. Their father, Michael, sent Emmett to buy cattle, but Emmett went missing, so Michael took Stafford and Bobby to Collins Bay Penitentiary to purchase a single Holstein. As inmate Steven Truscott led the cow out, their father suffered a sudden, serious heart attack and was taken away by ambulance. In shock, Stafford insisted that they take the cow home before going to the hospital. Upon arriving at the Hopkins family’s home, they found that Emmett had returned. He hadn’t bought cattle but instead spent the money on a racehorse. Stafford, devastated, furiously blamed his brother for their father’s heart attack. As Bobby led him away from the scene, he told Stafford about his brief exchange with Truscott. He told him his name, and Truscott replied, “Hello, Bobby Shepherd” (192).

The flashbacks continue. Six weeks after his heart attack, a frail Michael returned home from the hospital. His family revealed three surprises intended to make his life easier and happier: a new downstairs bathroom, a television, and a Standardbred racehorse named Brenda Bee Hoover, which was brought home by Emmett. Michael would die in 10 months, after which the family would fall apart. However, in the interim, these changes created an unprecedented period of hope and peace for them. The television, in particular, ended the family’s constant fighting, uniting them in shared nightly entertainment. The narrative also flashes back to explain Emmett’s difficult past, including his shy but volatile temperament and his failed courtship of Angela Duncan, who married Christy instead. Michael planned to train the new horse for the races with Emmett as the driver. Stafford notes that Brenda Bee Hoover won seven for seven at Belleville, but Michael died the night before her race at Kingston.

The narrative returns to the present. While Stafford is in Kingston, there’s a break-in at their home on Maui. Angered that Stafford had failed to repair their security gate as promised, Agnes secretly purchases a pistol for her own protection but doesn’t tell her husband about the incident. Meanwhile, a distraught Stafford enters the Church of the Good Thief and confesses the long-held secret of his friend Bobby’s death to the church caretaker. He reveals that decades ago, out of jealousy and fear of abandonment, he seduced Bobby’s girlfriend at a dance on Wolfe Island. When a heartbroken Bobby discovered their betrayal, he fled onto the frozen lake to walk back to Kingston in a blizzard. Stafford followed but fell through the ice and was rescued by his uncle Christy. The next morning, Bobby’s father discovered Bobby dead on the ice of the lake, not in the water. Stafford also recalls how Emmett wounded Brenda Bee Hoover during a drunken confrontation with Christy, after which Christy directed Stafford to fire the euthanizing shot. Emmett attempted suicide and was imprisoned. Having finally unburdened himself, a physically ill Stafford leaves the church to drive to his appointment in Napanee.

Roger Nuland, the lawyer for the late Donny and Marilyn Shepherd, recounts his struggle to contact Stafford. Before their sudden deaths in a car accident, the Shepherds had named Stafford as their children’s interim guardian in a preliminary document without his prior consent, intending to track him down later. After an extensive search, Roger finally reached Stafford, who coldly refused guardianship but agreed to travel to Napanee to establish a trust fund for each of the four children, insisting he wouldn’t meet them.

Upon arriving at Roger’s shabby office, Stafford is met by Roger’s wife, Tammy, whom he recognizes as a former classmate, the girl who once called Bobby “toad-face.” The reunion is tense, and Stafford attempts to leave just as Roger arrives, accompanied by all four Shepherd orphans, 14-year-old Donny, 12-year-old Bobby, six-year-old Andy, and baby Lucy. In the ensuing chaos, Stafford is cornered. The red-haired Bobby calmly approaches Stafford and identifies him as his grandfather’s friend. Confronted with the boy, Stafford is frozen, and Roger knows that the man has changed his mind about accepting the guardianship.