A magnificent marriage, a marriage of opposites a marriage alive, with the clash of temperaments stands at the center of Robert Crichton‘s wonderful new novel. The place is Scotland, and the time is the turn of the century. The story begins when Maggie Drum on the morning of her 16th birthday leaves her home the rock hard cold town of Pitmungo, to set in motion the plan she has constructed for her life, she knows what she needs, and what her first step must be: finding the right husband to father, a family, a man different from the small, dark men of Pitmungo, whose bodies and ambitions have been stunted by the harshness of their years in the pits.