Wingblades

Set in the year 2000, the story begins in Mayo, a tiny community on the banks of the Stewart River in Alaska. The town has just one bank, one school, and one market, so its residents know each other as closely as relatives do.

Life there moves at an unhurried pace. Each afternoon, parents sit on park benches while their children chase each other around the fountain. A circus passes through every couple of years, and the town gathers in its square for an annual festival. Those gatherings are the biggest events locals can remember, but something far more significant is about to happen.

Across town, Franchesca is in labor. Hours earlier she took a hard fall into a ditch, and the townspeople fear for her unborn child. Franchesca survived, against all expectations, but no one is sure the baby did.