Greenwood

Fiona Craig’s husband, James, is a physician who contracts consumption (now called tuberculosis) during his studies of its spread among the poor. He suggests migrating from Scotland to Canada to relieve his symptoms amid the country’s abundant forestry.

Fiona and James build a home in the Canadian countryside, though James dies of his illness soon after. Fiona is so stricken with grief that she becomes reclusive, causing the local children to become frightened of her. When Everett and Harris are brought to her, she bars them from ever entering her house.

Everett and Harris become notorious for stealing other people’s property. Mrs. Craig does little to admonish them, and the townspeople similarly pity the boys too much to discipline them. When the boys become proficient at hunting and skinning animals, however, the townspeople decide to provide them with blacksmith tools.

Everett and Harris take to blacksmithing immediately, refining the working tools of the town. They are later given woodcutting tools, which they use to begin their career as loggers. Harris uses his natural entrepreneurial skills to sell the wood to the townspeople. The townspeople, enamored by the boys’ naiveté, begin referring to them as the “green wood boys” (226). The boys use their earnings to buy personal belongings, as well as gifts for Mrs. Craig, who leaves them out on her porch.

The sibling rivalry between the Greenwood boys becomes pronounced as they fight over whom Mrs. Craig favors between them. The town decides to enroll the boys in school to pacify them. While the boys generally refuse to enter school, they agree to go under the false pretense that Mrs. Craig wants them to enroll. When the boys’ rambunctious behavior affects the other schoolchildren, the town decides that only one of the Greenwoods should receive an education. They select Harris because of his entrepreneurial potential.

Harris uses his education to command the growth of the Greenwoods’ logging business. The townspeople come to prefer their wood over that of the bigger logging business in town. The Greenwoods use their logging and carpentry skills to build a cabin of their own. They invite Mrs. Craig to a housewarming dinner, but she refuses on the basis that their cabin has too few windows.

Mrs. Craig’s health declines, causing her to withdraw even further from the town. The town doctor finally visits and finds her dead in her house, having suffered from the consumption she contracted from her husband. The townspeople surmise that her distance from the boys was a way of protecting them from illness. The Greenwoods construct her coffin and carry her into town for her funeral.

Sometime later, a lawyer executes Mrs. Craig’s will, bequeathing all of her property to the Greenwoods on the condition that they burn her house down. They fulfill her condition immediately.

Harris begins diligently grooming himself. He hatches a plan to log and mill the entire forest on their property and then use the profit to buy more land. Everett disagrees with this plan, content with their modest lives on the woodlot. He offers to let Harris do what he will with his half of the property, but Harris wants Everett’s half too.

With the onset of the First World War, many of the town’s boys are called to service. Harris volunteers for recruitment but is recognized by the local induction officer, who knows that Harris is too young.

Harris swears his oath of allegiance as a Canadian soldier.

Harris is revealed to have traveled to Kingston to enlist as a soldier. Upset at being left to run the business alone, Everett gets into a violent fight with Harris at home. Harris nevertheless attends training and excels in different fields. When he returns home, he accidentally axes his toe off, which is followed by a string of incidents that cause Everett and the town doctor to realize that Harris is going blind. With no way to test the full extent of his blindness, Harris worries that the military will refuse to believe what has happened.

Everett is deployed to Europe using Harris’s name. He receives various awards for his four-year service, even though he demonstrates little to no knowledge of basic training.

Harris searches for his brother, though Everett and the other soldiers have already left for Quebec to board their transport ship. Everett bound his brother to his bed to prevent him from leaving Canada. Harris becomes reclusive but is enrolled in a school for the blind. He succeeds academically, eventually gaining admission into Yale University’s School of Forestry. Sometime during his college studies, his blindness becomes total.

Harris returns to the town with his new assistant, Baumgartner. He expresses his intention to welcome Everett back as a partner in the logging company once he returns from Europe. When Harris learns that Everett has been admitted to a hospital in Liverpool, he sends an urgent letter to the hospital to communicate their partnership terms and an awkward apology for Harris’s idea to cut Mrs. Craig’s woodlot down.

Harris learns that Everett has accepted his brother’s terms and prepares a feast to welcome him home. Everett fails to return home, however, which angers Harris. Harris cuts down every tree on the Greenwood property and leaves permanently.

Everett finally returns five years later, traumatized by his wartime experiences. He is crestfallen to discover the barren property, which has been sold off. Everett eventually leaves town, prompting the townspeople to imagine what became of the Greenwood boys in the years that followed. They are proud of Harris’s rise to the status of industry titan and ashamed of Everett’s incarceration for kidnapping a child. However, they acknowledge that things could have easily gone the other way.

A dust storm falls over Temple Van Horne’s farm, increasing the damage caused by prolonged drought. Temple has a tenuous relationship with her farm, having employed various crop improvement techniques to no avail.

That morning, Art McSorley, a railroad detective, consults Temple’s workers for information on their water tower. Temple disperses her workers and then pushes back at McSorley for claiming that her workers tainted the water supply. McSorley asks Temple to let him know if a man traveling with a baby ever comes by.

Everett and Pod’s train journey comes to a halt when their train passes through a dust storm. They get off at the town of Estevan. While Everett is searching for shelter from the dust, Temple stops him, identifying him as the man McSorley mentioned. Unaware of her relationship with the detective, Everett asks for work. Temple initially claims there is no room for new farmhands, but when Everett offers to plant trees to protect her crops from the storm, Temple allows Everett and Pod to stay in her house.

Temple introduces them to her elderly cook, Gertie, who helps them settle in. Everett tries to join dinner with the farmhands, but they prevent him from sitting with them. He asks for goat’s milk for Pod. Gertie gives him porridge instead since their goat has died.

When Temple was a child, her father, a prolific reader, instigated the practice of inviting the town minister to dinner with them as an act of charity. One day, Temple’s mother abandoned the family. After Temple’s father died, Temple became a schoolteacher and married an inventor named Jurgen Kohler. When Temple lost her child in an ectopic pregnancy, Kohler abandoned her as well.

Temple bought a farmhouse in Estevan and reinstated her father’s charitable tradition of setting extra places at her dinner table. This tradition soon attracted unhoused people to join her for meals, including Gertie. Temple started offering her visitors accommodation in exchange for work. Sometime later, she decided to fill the old church on her property with books, turning it into a community library. She asked her visitors to donate a book in exchange for one withdrawal. The library grew exponentially over the next three years.

Temple is cautious about Everett and Pod’s arrival. If they cause any trouble, she plans to contact McSorley. In the meantime, she sees no problem with accommodating them while Everett plants her new farm trees.

Feeney moves into Harris’s large mansion. Harris finds it difficult to focus on his daily affairs because he would rather spend his time listening to Feeney’s readings. To maintain discretion, Feeney and Harris go on a trip to inspect the company’s mills. Feeney spends each night in Harris’s tent. The mood of their trip is disrupted by the horrific death of a mill worker.

When they return home, Harris’s accountant, Milner, and Baumgartner report supply problems with the Japanese deal. Harris senses their suspicions about his recent trip but refuses to be affected by them. Feeney suggests buying the island the company has been leasing from its owner, the American industrialist John D. Rockefeller. Harris is drawn to the idea not only because their lease will soon expire but also because he envisions building a retreat for himself and Feeney. When Harris is unsure how to propose the sale to Rockefeller, Feeney suggests throwing a party.

Temple tries to acquire maple saplings from a neighbor, but her workers are reluctant to collect them because they are aware of McSorley’s search for the fugitive Everett. Once they acquire the saplings, Everett gets to work planting them with Temple. Temple estimates that it will take them two weeks to complete the job.

Everett explains Pod’s name and background. He claims that he’s bringing her to her family out West. Temple then tells him about McSorley. Everett denies that he kidnapped Pod, but Temple doesn’t believe him. She makes him promise to leave as soon as they’re done planting the new trees.

Though he is illiterate, Everett visits the library to try reading the diary he found with Pod. Temple enters, and Everett hastily hides the diary in a book about seed crushing. They talk about her reading habits, book recommendations, and Everett’s experiences during the First World War. He remembers how his trauma and shock prevented him from coming home immediately after his discharge.

Temple offers to teach Everett how to read, using the Greek epic poem The Odyssey by Homer as a practice text. Later that night, Everett considers leaving the diary hidden in the library so that McSorley will have a harder time connecting him to Holt’s target. He continues his routine of planting the trees and learning to read with Temple. The night after they finish planting the trees, they have sex.

Lomax reaches Vancouver and uses what is left of his money to stay in a poorly kept hotel. He visits Harris Greenwood’s residence, but Harris is too busy preparing for a soirée with several industrial titans. Lomax indicates that he will attend the party as Holt’s representative.

Lomax updates Lavern on his progress. She replies that Holt is evicting their family from their house and that he should come home. Lomax has a tuxedo made and wears it to the soirée. He sees Harris and tries to tell him about Everett’s plans, but Harris dismisses him, believing that Lomax is running a scam on him. Lomax also sees Holt and runs off to the restroom. He takes opium to relax, and when he wakes up, he spots Harris and Feeney speaking intimately to one another.

Harris hosts the soirée at the luxurious Hotel Vancouver, asking Feeney if Rockefeller has arrived. Feeney goes around to search for him, after which Lomax arrives to tell Harris about Everett. Harris dismisses Lomax and then drinks several glasses of alcohol to calm his temper. Feeney later returns to report that he has arranged a meeting with Rockefeller. Harris asks Feeney to accompany him to the men’s room, then kisses him while they are in one of the stalls.

Feeney cautions Harris about his drunken behavior, but Harris impulsively goes ahead to talk to Rockefeller. Rockefeller challenges his dealings with the Japanese and then informs Harris that he is not interested in selling the island to him. In a last attempt to achieve his objective, Harris challenges Rockefeller to an arm-wrestling match with the island and the Japanese deal at stake.

After sleeping with Temple, Everett confides how he really found Pod and how committed he has grown to her safety. He shares his plan to use his promised stake in Harris’s company to finance Pod’s upbringing.

Temple asks him to stay one day longer, promising that Everett will still have enough time to leave before McSorley arrives. Everett agrees and then goes to comfort Pod. When Temple wakes up, she and Everett share their dreams of the water and trees that appear throughout their lives.

Rockefeller telegrams his agreement to Harris’s terms after losing the arm-wrestling match.

On their last evening at the farm, Everett muses whether Pod loves him or will forget him in a week’s time. Temple realizes that Everett wants to keep Pod in his life, which entails finding a place where they can hide from the authorities. He encourages Temple to come with him, but Temple indicates that her place is at the farm. Everett promises to return once he has finished raising Pod.