A lantern slide, a faded recipe book, a postcard from Mexico, a nugget of fool's gold -- such are the clues available to the narrator of The Smallest Objective as she excavates for buried treasure in her family home. Together, these objects belonging to several Jewish personalities afford an intriguing vantage point on 20th-century Montreal -- from a Runyonesque character well-known by the city's gossip columnists to a Lithuanian botanist versed in the fossil record to a young woman whose newfound opportunities mirror the promise and ambiguities of the city itself. As the narrator struggles with her mother's failing memory and final decline, unexpected secrets are revealed and expired truths exposed.