Willa Knox, a former magazine journalist, and her un-employed professor husband followed all the rules as responsible parents and professionals, and have nothing to show for it but debts and a house that is falling apart. Their dubious shelter is also the only option for a disabled father-in-law and an exasperating, free-spirited daughter. In another century, in the same town, the local science teacher, Thatcher Greenwood, finds himself under siege when his employer forbids him to speak of the exciting work just published by Charles Darwin, and his young bride and social-climbing mother-in-law bristle at the risk of scandal. Thatcher wants to honor his duties, but perilous friendships threaten to draw him into a vendetta with the town’s most powerful men.With history as its canvas, Unsheltered paints a startlingly relevant portrait of life in precarious times, when the foun-dations of the past have failed to prepare us for the future.