Howard Gibbs’s 80-year-old gas station needs new tanks or inspectors will shut him down. Nearing retirement, he’s desperate to lure his daughter back from the city help carry on the family legacy. Next-door, things seem better. A couple that moved from the city is opening a boutique guesthouse that serves cappuccino and stages eclectic music performances. But what would lead them to build here, along a stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway so poor that it could be mistaken for darkest Appalachia? Once the main road between Toronto, Canada’s biggest city, and Ottawa, the nation’s capital, this stretch of highway is now a black ribbon of failed businesses and derelict properties. What happened ? And why, despite the hardship, do some think it can be turned around?