The opening of the Canadian West serves as the backdrop against which we read the stories of four Saskatchewan settlers: Pyotr the homesteader, Mary the seamstress, Lizzie the school teacher and Albert the land surveyor. They are part of the great pioneering influx onto the prairies of Central Canada in the late 1800s. While these four characters are fictional, the Three Sisters' houses actually did exist. They were removed as Saskatoon expanded.