Meg and Jamie Bains spend twelve hours a day sewing shirts in a loud, dim room filled with row after row of poor women and children tending their sewing machines. They're lucky to have the work. In the 1870s Canada suffers from a terrible Depression, and the Bains have travelled the country looking for work since their father died, finally ending up in this dark mill in Montreal. Soon they discover they've only been hired to replace workers striking to raise their rock-bottom wages. This knowledge, along with the cold and hunger and seemingly endless workdays, starts to wear them down. As they come to know their co-workers, however, the find they're not alone in their misery. Working together they find it's possible to make change, even in the dark world of the oppressive mills.

Set against the grim background of Canada's 19th century industrial cities, Trouble at Lachine Mill is the story of two young people's perseverance in the face of incredible squalour and adversity. The book is illustrated with a section of photographs chronicling the industrial city of Montreal in the late-19th century. This is the fourth book in the Bains series of historical novels, well-researched, action-filled narratives following the travels of one family across Canada-from Newfoundland to Alberta- in search of a better life during the hard times of the 1870s.