The community of Aboriginal groups and fur trade society that had initially developed at Porcupine-Iroquois Falls (c. 1660-1905) was displaced early in the twentieth century by newcomers drawn to the opportunities offered by mining, agriculture, and pulp and paper production. The newcomers came from a wide variety of cultural backgrounds, which led to divisions in the towns and villages they created. By the mid twentieth century, however, a community identity had been built on shared experience, hostility to the "South" and particular ethnic groups, and an imagined sense of northern uniqueness.

Changing Places examines the process by which a relatively coherent community emerged in the sub-region of Northern Ontario bounded by Timmins, Iroquois Falls, and Matheson. Using archival, oral, and newspaper sources, Kerry Abel offers the only comprehensive history of the area. She rejects traditional sociological and anthropological models about community and identity in favour of a more nuanced interpretation that takes historical process into account.