In the late 1800s, Osgood, Indiana, a small plains town, is hardly the setting for a bucolic pastoral.

Deborah Allbritain’s poems, along with period photographs, evoke a vision of a courageous young woman living in Osgood. Through her eyes, we discover shape shifting, the magic of pigs, possible Romanovs, disappearing houses, unrequited same sex loves and other truths of small-town Osgood.

Various narrative threads weave through the collection, lean against each other and reflect. We meet Oscar and Millicent, Nikanor, Manly DeBeck and Mr. Woolsey, Lilla May Barker, and others. The townspeople of Osgood have their own provocative loves, betrayals, hopes, tragedies, and gender issues that they wish, for the most part, to keep hidden in their lifetimes.