From the day she is discovered unconscious in a New England cemetery at the turn of the twentieth century, nothing but a bowling ball, a candlepin, and fifteen pounds of gold on her person, Bertha Truitt is an enigma to everyone in Salford, Massachusetts. She has no past to speak of, or at least none she is willing to reveal, and her mysterious origin scandalizes and intrigues the townspeople, as does her choice to marry and start a family with Leviticus Sprague, the doctor who revived her. However, Bertha is plucky, tenacious, and entrepreneurial, and the bowling alley she opens quickly becomes Salford's most defining landmark, with Bertha its most notable resident.