Nestled in the rolling foothills, where the prairie climbs to meet the Rocky Mountains, lies the small town of Cougar Lake. You know these towns. You’ve driven through them. Maybe even stopped for a bite at the Copper Kettle cafe.

In this book all the doors in town swing quietly open. Each inhabitant’s life and story intersects with others like overlapping ripples in the water. Each story stands alone but each story reaches tendrils into others. The residents form a cast of beguiling, sometimes eccentric, characters. As the book progresses, we gradually discover their loves and longings, their histories and their dreams. We learn what brought them to Cougar Lake and, more importantly, what keeps them here. In the end the town stands together to survive.

Here are the stories, the dramas, the heartbreak and the glories of the town and the people of Cougar Lake.