Fox moves on quick and elegant feet through the terror and exhilaration of Winnipeg's 1919 General Strike, the most turbulent period of the city's history. In a novel of remarkably vivd, kinetic power, the collision of the wealthy and working classes after the First World War becomes a backdrop for the heady conflict between desire and human idealism.

Fox is a brilliant contemporary filter for the social gospel of the day. Clamouring newspaper headlines and the passionate rhetoric of the new Left echo throughout the Establishment - the languid, dreamlike crescentwood world of Eleanor and MacDougal, Mary and Drinkwater. The cushion of luxury is scant protection when words like 'sedition' and 'Marxism' explode in their midst, confronting them with the bigotry, greed and ambition of the post-war years.