Born in Walkerton, Ontario, Alice Boissonneau comes from a newspaper family of Irish stock. With this background she developed a strong social consciousness, becoming a social worker and a writer.

Boissonneau's short stories have appeared in Canadian Forum, Alphabet, and on the CBC series Anthology. This is her first novel. It was published in 1975, and was a finalist for the Books in Canada First Novel Award and the Toronto Book Award.