The year is 1917, and the largest man-made explosion prior to Hiroshima occurs in Halifax. Two thousand are dead, hundreds are injured and blinded, and many more are homeless. Shatter explores the little-known details of the aftermath of this event. Anna MacLean is a teenager, thrilled with her new diary, ripe with the promise of youth, and flushed with excitement at all of the handsome soldiers in the streets of Halifax. Though Anna's mother and her best friend, Elsie Schultz, talk of the war, Anna can only think about whether the young man at the door enforcing the blackout order thought she was pretty. The next morning the world collapses. As a community tries to find someone to blame, four characters search through the rubble for something true. Lyrical and shockingly relevant to our post-9/11 world, Shatter is an examination of the cycles of fear.