The Whistling Season is one of 13 novels written by the late Ivan Doig. As with many of his other works, the story is set in Montana in the first half of the 20th century. Written in the first person, the narrative primarily takes place over the 1909-10 school year of the main character, 13-year-old Paul Milliron. Paul’s widowed father hires a housekeeper, Rose, who arrives with her brother, Morrie Morgan. Morrie, who becomes the teacher in the one-room school, and Rose transform the community. Marais Coulee, where the novel takes place, mirrors the setting of Doig’s early life in rural farming and ranching communities in Montana. First published in 2006, the novel was selected as a New York Times Editor’s Choice and the Washington Post Book World’s Best Book of the Year. Doig penned two sequels to The Whistling Season, Work Song (2011) and Sweet Thunder (2014).

This study guide uses the 2006 HarperCollins Mariner Books paperback edition.

Content Warning: The narrative contains a description of animal cruelty.

Plot Summary

In the fall of 1957, Paul Milliron, the Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction, is on his way to a meeting with representatives from districts that have one- and two-room schoolhouses. Because his department’s appropriations committee believes such small schools are an archaic remnant of the state’s homesteading days, Paul must reluctantly tell these people that he must close their schools. The journey—and its purpose—lead him to reflect on his childhood as a student in a one-room schoolhouse, particularly the events of the years 1909-10, when Rose Llewellyn and her brother Morrie arrive in Marias Coulee, Montana.

While the circumstances of the frame narrative set in 1957 emerge slowly throughout the novel, the years 1909-10 occupy the bulk of Paul’s first-person narrative. Paul, 13, is the eldest son of Oliver Milliron, who was widowed the year before the story begins. Paul and his brothers Damon, 12, and Toby, seven, live with their father on a homestead claimed from the United States government around the village of Marias Coulee. Their late mother’s cousin Rae and her husband George live nearby, along with George’s acerbic mother, whom the boys call Aunt Eunice. Oliver not only farms but serves as a drayman, moving supplies to the settlement of Westwater for the construction of the Big Ditch, a large farm. Paul and his brothers attend Marias Coulee’s one-room school.

A voracious newspaper reader, Oliver spots an ad in the Westwater Gazette from a Minnesota widow seeking employment as a housekeeper in Montana. Oliver contracts to bring this woman, Rose Llewellyn, to Marias Coulee. She surprises the Millirons by arriving with a young man she introduces as her brother Morrie. Rose, who whistles quietly when she works, immediately makes a positive impact on the family, organizing and cleaning their disheveled house. However, she staunchly refuses to cook for them, as stated in her original advertisement. Morrie, despite his educational credentials, takes on odd jobs, such as sawing firewood for Eunice and cleaning the Millirons’ chicken house.

Paul, who is intellectually precocious, punches the school bully, Eddie Turley, for insulting Rose. To avoid a fistfight, which Paul would lose, Damon arranges a horse race, an activity that plays to the strengths of the Milliron boys. Eddie proves unable to control his horse, leaving Paul triumphant.

When Miss Trent, the lone Marias Coulee teacher, departs with a traveling Pentecostal evangelist, Oliver presses Morrie into service as the new teacher. Though he has never taught before, Morrie quickly makes a positive impact on the three dozen students. When the Millirons help him move into the teacherage, a home reserved for the school’s instructor, they discover that, unlike his sister, Morrie is an excellent chef.

While hunting for arrowheads, the Milliron sons and Morrie see Brose Turley, Eddie’s father, chase a wolf on horseback as the wolf is escaping from a trap, then kill it. The event causes Paul to have a nightmare, a continual issue for him. After an incident in which Eddie unintentionally punches Morrie, the teacher makes him stay after school, while the Milliron boys work on their arrowhead collection. Brose bursts into the classroom, demanding that Eddie leave immediately. He threatens Morrie, who produces a double set of brass knuckles and allows Brose to take Eddie without incident. Morrie keeps Paul after school one day, not to punish him but to tell Paul that he is so academically advanced that he needs to go straight to high school. Paul opposes the idea, but Morrie appeals to Oliver, and begins teaching Paul Latin after school. Paul finds the new course of study exhilarating as it gives him insight into the roots of words and helps him understand how language works.

When the Milliron boys make their annual visit to Aunt Eunice’s house on Christmas morning, they discover that she has died at the kitchen table. After her funeral, Rose announces to Oliver that she wants to buy Eunice’s house, for which she needs another advance on her salary.

Throughout one school day, Morrie continually calls out most of the older boys for seemingly inconsequential offenses, telling them they must stay after school. When the day ends, Morrie gathers the boys in the cloakroom and tells them to dogpile Eddie, as he sits at his desk. As the boys hold Eddie to the ground, Morrie places reading glasses on his face and tells him to read the blackboard, which Eddie can see for the first time. With the news that Halley’s comet will soon appear after a 75-year absence, Morrie engages the students in astronomy lessons.

Oliver receives a letter saying that an inspector from the Department of Public Instruction will soon arrive to administer standardized tests to the Marias Coulee school children. He explains to Morrie and Paul that if the children do not perform well on the tests, the state can shut down the school and transport the students to a larger school in another town. On a Sunday in March, Oliver is preparing to plow Rose’s farmland when one of the draft horses steps on Toby’s foot, crushing it. To care for Toby, Rose moves into the Milliron house while Paul and Damon move into her house.

One morning, Brose walks into the school and demands that Eddie leave with him. Since it is Eddie’s birthday, it is no longer illegal for Brose to take him out of school permanently. As a result, Morrie tells Oliver he will resign from his teaching position. The students decide they must do something to lift Morrie’s spirits and plan “Comet Night,” when their parents will come to the school and watch a presentation about Halley’s comet. This event and the impending visit from the school inspector renew Morrie’s interest in teaching. When Toby’s doctor arrives to give him permission to resume going to school, the public instruction inspector, Harry Taggart, is with him. The next day the inspector finds the school spotlessly clean, well-supplied, and filled with obedient, attentive children. In the afternoon, Harry administers the tests and discovers that all the classes are on grade level. He notes that Paul attained the highest test score on record. That night, the children make their successful Comet Night presentation.

Oliver, Paul, and Damon ride to the completed Big Ditch in Westwater so Oliver can collect money owed to him. They visit their mother’s grave on the way home, and Oliver tells his sons that he is in love with Rose and intends to ask her to marry him. During their preparations for the wedding, Damon and Paul discover that Rose’s first husband, Casper, was a prizefighter killed by gamblers after he intentionally lost a fight. They realize Rose came to Montana to avoid those gamblers who might think she still has some of the gambling money. The boys agree to keep Rose’s secret. When Paul confronts Morrie, he learns that his teacher’s real name is Morgan Llewellyn, Caspar’s brother and former fight manager—making him Rose’s brother-in-law. Morrie agrees that, if Paul keeps his secret, Morrie will leave Marias Coulee after giving Rose away at her wedding.

At the end of the novel, the adult Paul reflects on the lessons Morrie taught him, and he realizes that he can subtly request certain language in the upcoming legislative session. These changes will allow him to perpetuate the existence of the state’s remaining small schools.