Margaret Lawrence's unparalleled talent for creating rich and complex characters and for conjuring up the great riddles of history has been widely celebrated. In this superb novel, the critically acclaimed author of Hearts and Bones gives us her most stunningly beautiful and elegant work yet.In January 1809, John Frayne, his own life in ruins, returns from the West to New York state to reclaim his dead father's confiscated lands, and to recover the love of a young son he himself has abandoned. When he reaches his father's burned-out house, he sees a ragged and mute young madwoman sliding a body through the lake ice of the Bay of Spirits. She is Jennet Trevor, whose journey back from grief and loneliness weaves itself into Frayne's darkened life, as the old idealistic America is replaced by a new breed that cares more for power and money than for the freedom of these two fragile lovers.