Shadows on the Rock is the story of an apothecary and his daughter in 1697-98 in Quebec city. It starts as the apothecary, Euclide, watches the annual departure of the ships for France in the fall, laden with their letters to family and their requests for supplies, and the novel ends after the ships return the following year. There is a brief coda that offers a glimpse of their lives many years later.

The novel is steeped in French colonialism, Roman Catholicism, and the hardships and joys of settling into a new life in Canada. Driven by character and environment rather than plot, this novel of 17^th century Canada embodies the highly modern themes of alienation, loss, despair, and annihilation.

An excellent review published in the Virginia Quarterly, 1931, is available here:  http://www.vqronline.org/shadows-rock