Margaret Lawrence (1926–1987) has earned fame as one of Canada's most significant prose writers. The heroine of her novel “The Stone Angel,” Hagar Shipley, a ninety-year-old woman endowed with a sharp mind and a proud, unyielding disposition, decides to take a desperate act: not wanting to end up in a nursing home, which she perceives as a symbol of death, she runs away from home. Left alone, Hagar plunges into memories and reflections, which reflect the turbulent events of past years, the pangs of aging, and attempts to come to terms with the inevitability of the end. The last decisive step towards independence gives her the opportunity to reevaluate the long life she has lived and finally accept her fate - as it is.