All at once Cora stands. The butterflies explode from her long arms, her shoulders, cascade from her hair. Cora atop a large stone with the brilliance of a thousand butterflies lifting in waves around her body. A field of living energy.

Cora, with butterlies slipping around her, begins to move. He watches her uninhibited dance, Cora dancing for him like a river. Flury, watching her pure unrestrained movement, believes that until now, he has been asleep. The doctor’s son steps toward Fran’s girl, arms extended. Here, thinks Flury, is where I begin. (page 157)

The plot of this novel is uncomplicated: A pregnant teenager goes to live in a prairie town, works in the general store and gives birth to a daughter. Fran refuses to give up her child, instead choosing to raise her in the judgmental town. She finds support from the owner of the general store and his ailing mother.

Like all small towns, Little Cypress has secrets and as these unfold, the characters in this book come to life. There’s plenty of nostalgia in this story for anyone who has grown up on the Canadian Prairies, but there’s also magic, drama, and wonderful writing.

The book moves along swiftly and smoothly, carrying the reader from one story to another. Each chapter portrays the perspective of a different character, intricately linking them so that by the end of the book, their lives create a delicate web.