clement and angel are fraternal twins separated at birth they grow up in the same small frontier logging town of stillwater minnesota clement was left at the orphanage angel was adopted by the towns richest couple but is marked and threatened by her mothers mental illness they rarely meet but clement knows if he is truly in need angel will come to save him stillwater near the mississippi river and canada becomes an important stop on the underground railroad as clement and angel grow up and the country marches to war their lives are changed by many battles for freedom and by losses in the struggle for independence large and smallstillwater reveals the hardscrabble lives of pioneers nuns squaws fur trappers loggers runaway slaves and freedmen outlaws and people of conscience all seeking a better freer more prosperous future it is a novel about mothers about siblings about the ways in which we must take care of one another and let go of one another and its brought to us in nicole helgets winning gorgeous prose