
In 1806, Isobel Gunn was staring down the inevitability of a spinster's farm life in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, often referred to as the Island of Women. At the same time, across the ocean in Maskinongé, Quebec, Marie-Anne Gaboury is facing the prospect that her dashing new coureur de bois husband will leave her a fur trade widow when he returns west to the wilderness. Both women launch on perilous voyages that will change them forever and transform them into legends. A Small Compass is the story of the first two non-indigenous women to venture into the western Canadian wilderness. They meet and must help each other battle what they do and don't know to defend all they love.
In 1806, two strangers on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean set out on different journeys that landed them fighting for their lives together in the Canadian wilderness. Based on a true story, the first two white women to venture into the Canadian northwest give birth within a week of each other and must combine forces to battle the dangers of the wilderness to defend all they love.