The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Boyles, Claire. Site Fidelity. W.W. Norton & Company, 2021.

Site Fidelity opens with the story “Ledgers,” in which Nora must deal with the loss of her family’s ranch and her father’s failing health. Norah is especially interested in the Gunnison sage grouse, a bird that she and her father bonded over watching together. She notices the bird count has dropped, and when Henson, the man who bought their ranch, denies her request to coin the birds, Norah sneaks onto the land one night to dump his fuel, used to burn the sagebrush that the birds need. When Norah returns home, she is desperate to “know where Pop’s loyalty was”, but only receives a request for Oreos (14). Instead of pushing him, she decides that “Pop can have as many Oreos as he wants” and drops the subject (16).

In the next story, Ruth discovers that she is pregnant and wants to have her baby back home in Colorado. She tells her sister that she wants to get a job to save her own money, but that Del, her husband, is not happy with the idea. A week later, Ruth asks Ranger Allen for a job. Del, on the other hand, quit his work at the mine and got a new job at a trucking company. As Del is out on his new job, Ruth gives birth to her baby alone at work in the middle of the desert. Del returns home a few days later to meet his son, Christopher, and Ruth discovers that he stole the money she was saving for nursing classes. Rather than crumple in defeat, Ruth decides that she will “just have to start over” (40).

“Early Warning Systems” shows Mano worried about the dead fish in the river. At work at the water treatment plant, Keith, her coworker and the man she is having an affair with, informs her that the water is being damaged from the construction on the road upstream. Mano is determined to get evidence; instead, she ends up collecting dead trout and hanging them from the branches of a tree. The paper reports on the incident incorrectly, and Mano is frustrated with the town’s failure to see the real problem. Mano asks Keith to help her come clean about the fish, but he refuses, and Mano decides to take action. She calls the newspaper about the fish and then calls her boss to quit. The town continues to lack sympathy for the fish kills, so Mano decides to paint trout on postcard stock and send them to her congresspeople.

Amy and Bobby Jackson are living in the old office building on the sugar mill property in “The Best Response to Fear.” They have been hit hard by the recession. Bobby is out of work and feeling devalued and unworthy of Amy. He tries to start his own garage, but has little success. One night, Emler and Marcia, Bobby’s parents, stop by, and Elmer asks Bobby to fix up an old Ford Falcon. Embarrassed, Bobby accepts and finds fixing the car as a way to avoid thinking about his problems. However, tensions come to a head with Amy when she laments, “you aren’t doing any of the work” to get out of his depression (71). In the end, Bobby changes his perspective and fixes the Falcon, deciding that “he just needed to get this car running and other cars would follow” (75).

In “Sister Agnes Mary in the Spring of 2016,” Sister protests against the new oil and gas drill site just behind the playground of the St. Paul’s Catholic Primary School. She struggles with her obedience to the church and decides to go forward with a plan that she hopes will “bring her close again to God” (80). Sneaking into the park, she dumps gallons of bleach into the bulldozer. At the parish meeting, Sister and Mano stand up to the mayor and the man leading the drilling. Later, Sister heads to the playground with Mano and Ruth, planning to lock herself to the machine. She makes the sign of the cross and works through the pain, praying to God that this is His will and she is making the right decision.

“Man Camp” focuses on Joe Baker, working on an oil rig to earn money for his wife in assisted living. His son, DJ, died in the car accident which left his wife disabled. The company recruiter, Ben Stone, approaches Joe to propose to him a new job. Joe reflects on the offer with Dustin, the young man he shares a residency with, and eventually decides to take the job, “grab what luck was offering here, ride it as far into the future as possible” (110).

Lottie struggles with the expectations of her mother in “Flood Stories.” The two women are living in a cabin together after her mother began having health issues. Lottie tells her mom about a new job in Denver, but hides the fact that she is pregnant. She explains that reputation is extremely important to her mother, who had to come to terms with her brother Andy’s prison sentence and Lottie’s own poor choices. While hiking, Lottie reveals she’s pregnant to her mom and they move to Denver where she has her baby. Although her mother has not always shown intense love for Lottie, she sees the love she has for her daughter.

In “Natural Resource Management,” Leah is working on the Riverside Open Space as she copes with the aftermath of her husband, Andy’s, imprisonment. She has difficulty with her son, Tyler, who is prone to emotional outbursts. When flooding threatens her work at Riverside, Leah tries to save the site, but instead saves Elmer. This event repairs Leah’s relationship with Bobby and Elmer, broken since her husband falsified evidence against Bobby.

Charley sends a string of emails to his mother, Ruth, in “Lost Gun, $1,000 Reward, No Questions.” He and his brother, Chris, travel to Nevada to see their dying father, Del. However, when they arrive, Brandy, Del’s fourth wife, notifies them that he has already passed away. Upon seeing the poor circumstances of their half-family, Chris is moved to “keep the Tonopah family. He wants to raise them, shelter them” (165). Colton, fifteen years old, takes a liking to Charley and Chris and shows them around the house. He promises to take them into the mine tomorrow. However, when Chris and Charley try to bring them to LA, Brandy and the kids steal their car in the middle of the night. Chris only shrugs off the incident.

In the final story, “Chickens,” Gracie must battle the government’s ban on outdoor poultry flocks. She is forced to confront her old high school sweetheart, Smith, who works for the Agricultural Extension and enforces government restrictions. When Smith arrives at her house, Jerry, Gracie’s boyfriend, thinks that he is coming to arrest them and accidentally fires his gun. Smith shoots back in retaliation, and both men are severely injured. Gracie takes Smith to her neighbor’s house where she is forced to make a difficult decision between the two men and “murderer’s prison, chicken keeper’s prison” (189).