Summary

The novel opens in Quebec, Canada in October, 1697. The local doctor, Euclide Auclair, stands atop a hill and watches a ship sail downriver towards the Atlantic Ocean. It carries letters from the colonists back to France, and it will return eight months later, after the winter, with reply letters and supplies. Euclide then looks down to the settlement and observes the architecture, which is very similar to the architecture in the north of France. On the opposite shore of the nearby river is a thick pine forest. Euclide’s patron is the governor of Quebec, Count de Frontenac. In Chapter 1.2, Euclide returns to the building that contains his home and apothecary shop. There, he is greeted by his 12-year-old daughter Cécile, who was only four years old when she and Euclide first arrived in Quebec. Next door lives a baker, Nicholas Pigeon, who...