Howard Gibbs’s 80-year-old gas station needs new tanks or the inspectors will shut him down. Nearing retirement, he’s desperate to lure his daughter back from the city to help carry on the family legacy. Next-door, things seem better. A couple who moved from the city are set to open an upscale B&B. But what would lead them to build here, along a desolate stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway? Once the main road between Toronto, Canada’s largest city, and Ottawa, the nation’s capital, this highway is now a black ribbon of failed businesses and derelict properties. What happened? And why, despite the hardship, do some think it can be turned around?