A century and a half after the collapse of the global economy, the residents of the Great Lakes basin are suffering the aftermath of the industrial 'Before Time'. Climatic extremes are a persistent reminder of the danger of straying from the loop of life. A young girl, Annie, is given the dangerous quest to find the true light of wisdom that balances the spiritual with the scientific, struggling to preserve useful knowledge from the Before Time in a world of growing mysticism. Only her success will lead to a future for her people. Grief and fear accompany Annie as she struggles to fulfil her responsibility. In her concern for the trend to mysticism, she is awakened to the larger threat from technology. For all of its difficulty, the seventh path only leads Annie to the impossible choice between personal safety and fulfilling her quest.

Don Hayward was born in Sudbury Ontario in 1946. He grew up at a hydro-electric generating site on the Spanish River, surrounded by the natural world of the Canadian Shield hard rock country. This is the location for Echo of the Whip-poor-Will. Don resides in Goderich Ontario