In the early 1950s, the Southern Pacific Railroad no longer controls the state of California, as Frank Norris described it in "The Octopus," but in the little town of Dunsmuir it still has the power to force an injured brakeman, Frank Hiller, to return to work before he is healed, and Hiller, an angry man to begin with, passes on the fear and pressure to his wife and children. "Canyon," the story of a single summer day when Hiller disappears, is through the eyes of each of them in turn, including 10-year-old John, who fears his father but is even more frightened to see his father humiliated...