The Day the Falls Stood Still

Bess Heath is born to a life of privilege, one bound by Edwardian convention and a duty to marry well. But in 1915, on the verge of her eighteenth birthday, she returns home from school to an unfamiliar scene - the elegance of the life she once knew has vanished, her father is a broken man, jobless and losing hope, and her mother is struggling to keep the family afloat. Isabel, the lively, charismatic sister Bess has always relied on is almost unrecognisable. Her engagement called off, she languishes in her bedroom, brooding and refusing to eat. And all the while the society Bess has always known faces its own transition - one where the magnificence of Niagara Falls is threatened by the power companies that seek to harness its power for themselves. Forced into an early adulthood, Bess finds solace with riverman Tom Cole, against her family's strong objections. He is not from their world. Rough-hewn and guileless, Tom has as uncanny knack for reading the Niagara's whims and a reputation for daring rescues on the river. He understands better than anyone the awesome and potentially devastating power of the falls and consoles her through a tragedy that nearly ruins her. But as their lives become more fully entwined, Bess is forced to make a painful choice between what she wants and what is best for her family...