Next year : $b a semi-historical account of the exploits and exploitations of the far-famed Barr Colonists, who, led by an unscrupulous Church of England parson, adventured deep into the wilderness of Canada's great North-West in the early days of the twentieth century

In the opening pages you are invited aboard the cramped steerage of the S.S. Lake Manitoba, where nearly two thousand hopeful Britons are packed tighter than fish in a box. The narrator paints a vivid picture of the chaotic mix of aristocrats, professionals, laborers, and families, all under the watchful eye of the yet morally ambiguous Rev. I. M. Barr. As the ship battles bad water, rotten food, and occasional mutiny, the reader gets a taste of the pressures that shape the colonists before they set foot on Canadian soil.

Once ashore, the group spreads across the prairie towns of Saskatoon and Battleford, confronting a harsh climate, scarce supplies, and growing tensions with Indigenous peoples and the land itself. The narrative weaves together personal anecdotes—such as a temperance lecture gone awry and a sudden May snowstorm—with the larger ambition of forging a new community funded by half‑million pounds of British capital. Through humor and occasional tragedy, the early stage of the expedition reveals both the optimism that drove the colonists and the uneasy moral compromises that underlie their venture.