February 3 is the story of Laure and Jode, an unlikely couple of teenagers thrown together by forces and events much bigger than they realize.
Jode is third generation Ottawa Valley from a working family, emulating and admiring his older brother, Lionel, looking forward to turning 18 in the next year when he will be old enough to enlist.
Laure's life, in alternate chapters, proceeds as her mother, Marie, escapes her recently murdered husband's family to Antwerp and, by good fortune, to the Pankhursts in London.
There she grows up among the fights and triumphs of Emily and her daughters Sylvia and Cristabel, the prominent, British suffragettes.
She accompanies her mother to the Ottawa Valley when she marries a young, Canadian officer who she meets as he convalesces from war wounds.
When Laure and Jode meet, they fall in love but have a deep disagreement about war.
Jode chooses to join the Canadian army and go to war. Laure starts the fire which destroys the Parliament Buildings.
Both ends of the story feature Jode and Laure looking back on Remembrance Day when they're in their eighties.
They celebrate what really happened way back then.
