Betsy Jane Carruthers masterfully crafted bedtime stories for her grandchildren. Their favourite one just happened to be true.
The unusual tree with its crooked branches stands tall on the corner of a farm field in southern Ontario. How that buttonwood tree thrived so far away from the riverside is a bit of a miracle. But then, Betsy Jane always thought the same of Ellwyne, the mysterious boy from India who showed up at their farm in the winter of 1906.
Eleven-year-old Ellwyne Dacosta knows what home is. The bridge his late father designed spanning the Hooghly River. Reading newspapers at his mother's knee. Biting into a ripe mango from his grandmother's garden. Home is British India, circa 1900. But after losing both his parents, his ties to home begin to unravel. To escape debt collectors, Ellwyne's conniving yet charismatic stepfather steers the Ballantynes across continents to the farming community of Ekfrid Township, Ontario, Canada landing right under the watchful, curious eyes of Betsy Jane and her husband James A. Ellwyne, the orphan who's mistreated by his stepfather, is so far from home he fears he may never find it again.
James A. and Betsy Jane Carruthers fell in love over a broken jar of beet relish, and built a comfortable but humble existence based on the routines and chores of farm life. They are delighted when Ellwyne diligently shows up day after day for the exhausting, monotonous work, despite his lack of farm experience. While clearing a field for planting, Ellwyne is grateful when James A. agrees to provide respite for the lone buttonwood sapling, the teen sensing a kinship in its quiet strength through struggle.
At the homestead, toiling alongside his new chosen family, Ellwyne's fortunes begin to improve. And then the outbreak of war an ocean away changes everything.