Summary

The story takes place in late summer in and near Tuppertown on Lake Huron in Canada. The time is the 1930s. Tuppertown is an old grain port that has clearly seen better times. The story is told by a young girl whose family has recently moved to town from the country where their fox farm suffered a financial collapse.

As the story opens, the girl and her father take an after-dinner walk down to the shore of Lake Huron. They leave behind her mother and little brother. The mother is busy remaking old clothes into new ones for the girl to wear on the first day of school. The brother is very young and has already been put to bed on the screened-in porch. As the girl and her father leave, he calls out to them to bring back some ice...