Fifteen-year-old Ben longs to play the violin instead of working alongside his Uncle Henry, scraping a living from selling gasoline and doing odd jobs for “cottagers” on Lake Muskoka. There is no money in Ben’s Depression strapped world for violin lessons. When a wealthy widow hires him to repair her home, then encourages his interest in music, Ben struggles with this newfound opportunity. The resolution is sudden when a freak squall sinks his uncle’s boat, and Ben is unable to save him. Ben and his mother leave the Landing, resolved to do what it takes for Ben to study music. 2009 USBBY Outstanding International Books List, 2008 Governor General’s Liter ary Award–Canada. sc

Will Ben ever escape the Landing? The hardscrabble farm on the shores of Lake Muskoka can't generate a living, so Ben's Uncle Henry sells goods and gas to cottagers from the dock known as Cooks Landing. It had never been much of a living and since the Depression hit, it's even less.

Ben's thinking a lot these days, and it's making him miserable. He's thinking about how unfair it is that his uncle only cares about work. He's thinking about what he really wants to do: play the violin. These days, he's lucky to snatch the odd bit of practice between chores, playing to the chickens in the henhouse.

A new job fixing up the grand old cottage on nearby Pine Island seems at first to be just one more thing to keep Ben away from his violin. After he meets the island's owner, Ben changes his mind. Ruth Chapman is a cultured and wealthy woman from New York who introduces Ben to an unfamiliar, liberating world. After Ben plays violin for Ruth and her admiring friends, it only makes him more desperate to flee. Then, during a stormy night on Lake Muskoka, everything changes.