With trembling hands and shattered nerves, Elijah Taber, the alter-ego of the author, returns from infantry combat in Europe having escaped death by a miracle. He finds solace among his relations in Lost River Bridge, an isolated community in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. Expecting to visit for two weeks, he spends the entire summer of 1946, finding himself rejuvenated and ready to face his future. He returns to Canada, completes his engineering degree and has a successful career as a construction manager. Forty-two years after his first visit, offering no reason for his choice, he returns...