This three part novel roams the wildernesses of Manitoba and Minnesota during the 1960s. Young Archie, having grown up without a father, stumbles through his teenage years and is given direction by his unusual Uncle Emil. One-eyed Emil, having survived an explosion, near death in the recapture of the Philippines, and the recent loss of his wife, has not lost his sense of humor.

While on their canoe journey to an unnamed Manitoba lake, the building of Emil's cabin, and Emil's hike through the Boundary Waters while Archie is in Vietnam, Emil occasionally sidetracks onto tales he has only recently made up. His encounter with Elvis, the true story of Moses, the extinction of the dinosaurs; nothing is off limits for Emil: "While I was reading I got to thinking about what it would have been like if the stories had been about real animals instead of toy ones. You know, Pooh as a grizzly, eight foot tall, three inch claws and teeth like razors. I don't think his little pig buddy would have lasted very long..."