What is Fingerbone?

The tiny town of Fingerbone is shallowly rooted in its mountain setting. It sits on a lake that floods yearly, blizzards and fires happen often, as do murders and fatal accidents. The railroad bridge is the only link to the outside world and the site of a disastrous wreck that took the lives of an entire trainload of passengers, including Ruth and Lucille's grandfather, who worked for the railroad. The fragile existence of the town at the whim of the overpowering landscape gives its residents fears of homelessness and a religious zeal that results in grimly determined works of charity. The residents feed and help the transients who often flood the town as well, and they are so secretly afraid of losing their fragile grip on their homes that they are very determined not to lose Ruth to a life of transient drifting with her Aunt Sylvie.