Passing Innocence follows the lives of two siblings, after they enter the Wood's Christian Homes in 1947. The home, a real place, was located in Bowness, a community adjacent to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. One of the boys seems destined for a tragic fate, while the other has a chance at redemption. The supporting characters are memorably drawn. One of the more striking, a mysterious Indian boy whom the older brother Ted had befriended, suffers some brutal treatment. He disappears, and the mystery of what happened to that lost boy, runs like a dark undercurrent through the dramatic stories of life in the orphanage. This book finally and completely defines the experience of growing up in an institution. In Passing Innocence, Francis Dwyer has written a remarkable and memorable novel.