From the day Bertha Truitt is discovered unconscious in a New England cemetery at the turn of the 20th century—with nothing but a bowling ball, a candlepin, and 15 pounds of gold on her person—she is an enigma to everyone in Salford, Massachusetts. After marrying Leviticus Sprague, the doctor who revived her, plucky Bertha becomes the village eccentric and opens the bowling alley that becomes Salford's most defining landmark. But in this colorful, quirky novel by the author of the National Book Award finalist The Giant's House, Bertha's death will set in motion a wonderfully weird battle to determine who is heir apparent to Truitt Alleys.