a teacher who has recently retired after 27 years in the classroom reflects on his career as an elementary school teacher in southwestern Ontario while closing the family cottage on Lake Superior with his younger brother Stewart. The two brothers, who are no match for the mice, a lovesick moose, and all the broken-down machinery of the old cottage, bungle every repair they attempt, causing mishap after mishap. Meanwhile, the older brother Gogs, who is also the retired school teacher, finds pieces of a book in the cottage bookcase and begins to retell the story of Skyler and Tuyen.