As in his popular earlier book Beyond the River and the Bay, the bulk of the story is told by a character of Ross' invention, Ian Alexander Bell Robertson. Robertson, an Edinburgh gentleman born at the end of the Scottish enlightenment, acquired a deep sympathy for the displaced crofters and agricultural labourers of the Scottish Highlands. He lived in Quebec City between 1840 to 1842 to prepare a study of the Canadas intended either as a guide for the immigrant or, as Ross feels more likely, a record of the colonies at the moment they united and embarked on a promising future together. While...