Lost in the immense sweep of the Manitoba prairie, forgotten by thousands in the faraway city of Winnipeg, the people of Ashton live a simpler life. Here Jesus appears and walks the dusty town roads, aliens hover over the water tower, a simple name enacts a life-long curse and nine churches struggle to save the townspeople's reluctant souls.
Defined by a main street with a post office and a grocer, a rink and the police station where Eddy Prosser tortures Aboriginal kids, Ashton is bounded by the dump to the south, where the Frisians live, and the reserve to the west, where no one goes. To the north, farmer Lohmer owns a spread so vast that the town registry has lost count of his holdings, and from the east come the storms.