In Emily: Across the James Bay Bridge, Emily discovers B.C.[alpha]s Chinatown in 1896 and befriends Hing, her middle-class family[alpha]s servant. In Penelope: Terror in the Harbour, Penelope[alpha]s world is rocked-literally-with the 1917 Halifax harbour explosion. In Marie-Claire: Dark Spring, Marie-Claire[alpha]s life in 1885 Montreal is turned topsy-turvy amidst a smallpox outbreak and some drastic family changes, and in Rachel: A Mighty Big Imagining, Rachel, a freed slave, dreams of a better life in Nova Scotia, only to find that Canada brings its own set of hardships.