Hidden in the north woods of Maine stand the ruins of the logging camps at Lac-Pochette, a place afflicted by an everlasting winter that holds a fortune's worth of doll pine suspended atop a frozen river.
Lucy Sargent, the daughter of a poor lumberman, finds it hard to believe such wealth would sit deserted in the forest. Seeking confirmation, she travels to Lac-Pochette, where she instead discovers a runaway girl living in a bunkhouse.
The two of them interface with the dolls they find there — rare Merrymeeting dolls, which evaded their typical fates — that each have a tale to tell about the camp, its inhabitants, and the strange nature of the doll pine itself.