Spanning four centuries, Daniel Mason's novel is the story of a house lost in the woods of Western Massachusetts and its series of inhabitants. Lovers fleeing a Puritan settlement; a young colonist with a child kidnapped by Indians; a former soldier who devoted himself to growing apple trees; twin sisters, inextricably linked by love and jealousy; an artist who guards a secret; an avid hunter, whose wife sees voices (or does she not?) - and many, many others. When one story ends, another begins, and this continuity echoes the cyclical nature of nature, with the change of seasons and ecosystems. Trees and plants are full-fledged characters in the novel, and the experiences of the bark beetle turn out to be no less important than human ones. This is an unusual, inventively constructed, humorous and hopeful novel about the passage of time, our connection to the world, and how to see the story of change in the history of loss.