The Plague Of Doves

Joseph Coutts attempts to teach Marcus Aurelius to school children to no avail. He has similarly had one woman stolen away from him and at 26 and feels as though his prospects are waning. He has an affair with the older widow from whom he rents a room, who reduces his rent as a result. “So Joseph Coutts was ready to make a change in his life when he met up with Reginald Bull, who was looking for a man to join a town-site expedition heading for the plains […] the men would be paid in shares of land” (97). Joseph decides to join the expedition, which includes two sets of guides, Lafayette and Henri Peace and the Buckendorf brothers. Joseph uses the presence of the brothers, who are Metis, to dissuade the widow from going with him, although he misses her when she does not come to bed with him that night. Instead, Joseph reads to put himself to sleep, trying to get used to the idea of deprivation and a lack of worldly comforts in preparation for the journey.

The Expedition

In preparation for the journey, two Icelandic women make a big enough blanket to sleep the nine men. The cook, English Bill, insists on bringing his terrier on the trip. The widow gives Joseph a picture of herself as a keepsake, which Joseph almost gives back because he has no intention of marrying her, as she is unattractive and uneducated.

The Great Drive

Joseph brings the locket and Marcus Aurelius’s writings with him as his only personal possessions. The first expedition plans on being re-provisioned when the next expedition finds them in the coming spring. Within the first two days, the snow completely erases the trail, but the expedition proceeds about eight miles every day anyway. The two guides take turns sleeping with their beloved fiddle, and all the men sleep fully clothed beneath the blanket at night. English Bill’s food makes them fart, and Henri makes jokes about them playing the French fiddle. When one of the Buckendorfs gets mad, Henri suggests he play the German bugle. Joseph wakes up the next day to a beautiful sunrise, but Henri says that the beauty means a bad storm is coming. The men only make five miles per day and are beset with blizzards and terrible wind that blinds them. They must take shelter beneath the blanket to survive.

The next morning, snow has blanketed the bed and Joseph awakens to Henri playing the fiddle and Lafayette playing a hand drum, singing loudly. The song is meant to buck up the men’s spirits, but it annoys the Buckendorfs. Joseph realizes that the only reason they lived through the night was because of the blanket of snow, which kept them from freezing. They continue their trek, moving even on Sunday, and the men become more dead than alive. One of the oxen refuses to move its bleeding feet, and the men try to beat it to get it to move. Joseph speaks to it encouragingly until it trudges on, although later they kill it for food, which worries Henri. They eat and drink and the guides sing and play music, livening the men’s spirits. Joseph thinks longingly of the widow. The next morning, Bull stares at the horizon, thinking of his new love who almost made him drop out of the expedition at the last minute. The Peace brothers try to tease him, but Bull is so earnest they come to respect his devotion. Joseph does not think the girl is blindingly beautiful, although he reflects on the nature of love as he secretly looks at the widow’s picture.

Batner’s Powders

The food provisions run low and the storms worsen, making it hard for English Bill to cook. They resort to eating oxen feed and the amount of beans they consume makes sleeping underneath one blanket untenable. Bull begins to give the men laudanum to help them sleep. Lafayette kills a lynx but the meat makes them sick. After killing their last ox, the laudanum helps with the hunger pains, and the men become emaciated. They all dream the same dream of a great city and take it as a good omen. The guides kill buffalo and believe there is enough food to last until they are re-provisioned, so the men feast and build a log cabin.

The Emissary

Joseph finds the guides interesting, as they are devout Catholics but hunt buffalo like Native Americans, robing themselves in the pelts of wolves. They both love the fiddle and play sacred music on Sundays. “English Bill had treated their religious practices with skepticism and even made a few jokes at their expense” (107). But one day a wolf steals Bill’s dog and Lafayette shoots the wolf, saving the terrier. The weather warms and the meat rots, so the men must eat beans again. They take more laudanum.

Bull decides the men will die and elects to go back to his beloved. Joseph tries to beg him to stay, but he refuses. The cabin floods with water from the river and the men believe Bull will drown when he tries to cross it. The men take the last of the laudanum, having given the rest to Bull. Joseph kills an otter, crying over its body as he believes it to be an emissary. The terrier is the only one who can eat the otter. The men eat frozen birds the dog finds, and the terrier keeps the men from starving by catching fish, a squirrel, and a turtle.

The Millions

Bull crawls back into camp frostbitten and starving, looking like a ghost. Joseph feeds Bull soup and he dies, staring at the budding trees.

Lafayette Peace

The re-provisioner arrives after being deserted by his men, but he brings only a dozen biscuits. Joseph talks to the Peace brothers about their faith as they play the fiddle. Joseph makes them promise to bury him if he dies. Lafayette leaves to find meat. The Buckendorfs think about eating Bull, but the Peace brothers threaten to kill anyone who tries, and they bury him. Henri looks at the widow’s picture and says that Joseph will make her very happy. Lafayette comes back with a moose, and another outfit arrives bearing food. Joseph returns to St. Anthony broke, with a deed for useless land, and discovers the widow has married.

The Saint

After the expedition, Joseph wonders where his compatriots are. He tells Bull’s beloved of how he died, and she is so calm that her reaction sticks with him. He goes home and thinks of her, the otter, and Bull. He decides to become a lawyer.

Antone reflects on his mixed-race heritage. His father, also a lawyer, who built his house on Antone’s grandfather’s land, won a case that gave the Buckendorfs land. His grandfather and father both married Chippewa women: “we became a family of lawyers who were also tribal members, an unusual combination at the time, but increasingly handy as tribal law and the complications of federal versus state jurisdiction were just beginning to manifest” (115). Antone reflects on the complexities of the town and how he tried to keep his Pluto life a secret once he moved to the reservation. Antone explains that Wildstrand is Corwin Peace’s father, and Wildstrand’s grandfather is Junesse’s father, which makes Wildstrand not only part of the white lynching party, but also Junesse’s half-nephew. Antone thinks about how he defended Wildstrand from the transgression of consorting with Natives in court, garnering the enmity of Wildstrand’s ‘sinned-upon’ wife, Neve Harp. Antone contemplates the nature of justice, instinct, and history in differentiating between wolves and men.

John Wildstrand answers his front door to find Billy Peace, his girlfriend Maggie’s younger brother, pointing a gun at him. Billy forces John to go on a drive with him and to lie to John’s wife, Neve. John wonders how shy and artistic Billy got the courage to pull a gun on him. Billy demands ten thousand dollars for his sister’s baby, but John says it’s not enough to cover his love-child’s expenses. John suggests that a larger amount will be missed just the same, and they try to come up with a way for John to secretly give money to Maggie. Billy asks John why he doesn’t divorce his wife, and John admits that the only reason he is wealthy is because of his wife’s father, who owns the bank where he works. John agrees that he’d like to be with Maggie, even though his wife has never done anything to betray him. Billy admits that Maggie did not send him. John devises a plan for Billy to kidnap his wife the next night so that John can give Maggie the ransom. Billy is skeptical about committing a federal crime, but John convinces him.

The Gingerbread Boy

The next night, Billy comes to kidnap Neve, wearing all brown so John thinks makes him look like a gingerbread boy. He makes John tie her up, and John worries the plan won’t work. Billy gives Neve sleeping pills and takes her away, telling John where to leave the money and that if the police get involved, he’ll kill Neve, just like they planned. “She turned out to be a willing hostage, and Billy had no more trouble with her” (125). After they leave, John sits and thinks about how everything will work out fine.

Helpless

After Billy releases Neve, she ends up caught in a blizzard and has a fever for a week. Wildstrand nurses her back to health, surprised at how Neve has reimagined her abductor as a handsome God. She starts asking him to theoretically prove his love for her. When they have sex, she wants him to make her helpless and strangle her. John is terrified at how open and disarrayed his wife has become and asks Billy what he did to her, but Billy argues he didn’t do anything.

Murdo Harp

John visits his ageing father-in-law, Murdo, in the nursing home. Murdo asks after Neve, and John lies that she’s fine but has a cold. Murdo falls asleep and John thinks about his future. John hasn’t been able to get away from the needy Neve to see Maggie much, but when he does, he is in awe of Maggie’s radiance and dizzy from their love-making. Thinking of Maggie, John bends over and kisses Murdo’s forehead, and Murdo screams angrily at him.

The Gesture

Neve recognizes Billy from a Shakespearean play that Billy is in at the local community college. When John calls to confirm, Billy quits college and joins the army. A heartbroken Maggie refuses to let John touch her. Billy’s military picture makes him look like a kid playing dress-up. When John gets home, he tells his wife he’s leaving and that she can keep everything. She says nothing, just makes a sweeping gesture. John leaves.

The Lions

John moves into Maggie’s house. The baby is born and he looks just like Billy, who John has conceptualized as a Christ-like martyr, thrown to the lions to save John and Maggie. John realizes how strong Billy is. When John tries to touch the baby’s hair, “Maggie pushed away his hand with the same gesture that his wife had used to say good-bye” (131).

The Garage

John goes to Pluto to collect what little of his things Neve hasn’t thrown away. Upon his return to Maggie’s garage, where he lives, she threatens to turn him into the police for the kidnapping, angry at his for the danger he’s put Billy in. She reveals she’s kept in close touch with Billy and that he’s been writing about mystic visions. John realizes that Maggie hates him and moves around the house like a ghost.

The Entryway

Neve files an insurance claim for the belongings John took from the house,. John returns the items, and Neve calls him inside. She explains she needs the money because a big competitor bank has decided to move in next door to them instead of buying their bank. Neve confronts John about cheating on her and they have sex in the entryway. John tells Neve everything, and Neve admits she made up the idea that Billy violated her because she wanted to see John’s reaction. Neve argues that John saved her from a snowdrift, even though it was a farmer. John admits he always loved her. Neve calls the police.

A Shiver of Possibility

For years after he is caught, people ask John why he confessed to the kidnapping, and he gives various answers. He ruminates about when he first told the shotgun-carrying Billy to come in.