The undertaker practices the Dismal Trade with consummate skill. He has raised it to an art through the high craft of the Connable Method. He has transformed the ugliness of death into a thing of dignity and beauty. Victims brutalized by war, street fights, fires - every hazard in a raw West - in his hands, become presentable. Everywhere on the frontier he offers his skill: to the rich of San Francisco, to Kansas cowboys, outlaws, soldiers, and sheriffs. He is devoted to dignifying the dead. The undertaker's wife waits, she weaves, she builds. She is devoted to making her marriage whole, in spite of the tragedy that surrounds it; and most especially in spite of the tragedy that strikes at its centre one terrible afternoon. The undertaker is called to disguise the suicide of a famous financier. It is high drama, for only his art can save America's financial markets. His task on this day is secret, an act of understanding and dedication. In the end it is the undertaker's wife who, through love, is able to transcend death.
