Set primarily in Toronto, with brief stops in Philadelphia and New York, Mystical Rose spans from the 1920s to the 1990s. The story is told in flashbacks, revelations from the disordered mind of the elderly Rose, who, confronting death, has entered into a conversation with God. She revisits her life as an English-born girl growing up in the small town of Cobourg, Ontario. When her father returns from the First World War a burnt-out shell of his former self, her family's reduced circumstances force Rose into domestic service. Shortly after she enters the wealthy Rolyoke household, Rose finds herself married to the scion of the family and transported into a world she struggles to understand.With lyrical, precise prose and haunting images, Richard Scrimger captures the tale of a woman never quite in control of her own destiny, yet determined to deal with all that life presents.