She was cold, she was alone, and she knew she was going to die.

In the middle of an epic ice storm, Kitty Stevenson, an eccentric old woman, self-exiled to rural Canada from New York society, realizes that she is having a heart attack. She had survived Nazi Germany – she can survive this too. Her neighbors mount a heroic effort to save her. She lives to tell her tale of self-reliance, incredible wealth, poverty, and escape on the eve of a World War. Kitty is ultimately confronted by what she perceives as a personal moral failure.

A strong character, Kitty Stevenson is molded by the Depression and toughened by an intense encounter with Nazi Germany. In the end, she has only one story left to tell: a tale of murder. But, "It was war, damn it, it was war."

Poplar Hill is full of characters reminiscent of E. Annie Proulx'sThe Shipping**News, as well as Farley Mowatt's fiction, with a touch of Tinkers by Paul Harding.