Despite her success in her career, Penny is unhappy. The war has given her the opportunity to become a successful ship designer, and her design for a ship which will be better able to avoid submarine attacks has just been accepted for development. Meanwhile, Penny Wain is living in the Wain mansion with her father and younger brother Roddie, who is still in school. He is the only man who can prove that Neil's uncle is lying, and clear his name. He has returned to Nova Scotia to look for Alex Mackenzie, the corporal who had brought him the orders from Geoffrey during the battle, and had taken back his reply. Left with a limp from his injuries, and suffering from shell shock, he was released from military service. He eventually regained his memory, but retained his new identity, since he would be arrested again if anyone knew who he really was. Hospitalized in England, and temporarily suffering from amnesia, Neil was mistakenly identified as an English soldier. After the battle, he was found badly injured, unconscious, and lacking any ID. Before he could be court-martialed, however, the dugout in which he was imprisoned was shelled. He had his nephew arrested and charged with cowardice. Wain blamed the debacle on Neil, saying that he disobeyed a direct order. Wain went disastrously wrong, and many men were killed. When Neil went overseas, he was assigned to the regiment under his Uncle Geoffrey's command. He had grown up in the city, living with his uncle's family, the Wains, all of whom despised him, except for his cousin Penny. As it turns out, this is Neil Macrae, returned home from the War. The novel starts out with an unnamed man who is wandering the streets of Halifax. The novel takes place over the span of one week in December of that year- the week in which the Halifax Explosion occurred. It takes place in 1917 Halifax, though some of the past events which influence the conflicts and issues that drive the plot occurred overseas in France, and also in Montreal. Barometer Rising is the 1941 novel by Hugh MacLennan which is set during the horrors of World War I and the Halifax Explosion.

Barometer rising by hugh maclennan