In the prairie town of Ordeal, on the eve of the millenium, members of the dwindling farming community brace for a rally planned to coincide with the provincial premier's visit.
Broken by years of drought and government indifference, this is their last-ditch effort to save what's left of their town and way of life.
But strange and fantastical visitations - far more momentous than that of the premier - are already taking place, drifting like wisps of fog in and among the townspeople.
As the community wages its mortal struggle for survival, history slips its moorings, emerging to signal the imminence and inevitability of change, and an end to life as we know it.
The Fourth Archangel is Sharon Butala's deeply moving and mournful elegy to a land and a way of living that have all but disappeared. Yet she brings both to vibrant, memorable life giving strong and enduring voice to our eternal, passionate struggle to live with the land, to be true to it and to love it.

The Fourth Archangel is the third of a loosely-connected trilogy about rural life. The first is The Gates of the Sun, and the second is Luna. This one is located mostly in the town and is set in what was then the future - the year 2000.