The Road to the Rapids: Nineteenth-Century Church and Society at St. Andrew's Parish, Red River, rich in detail, provides an account of the impact of the Anglican Church on the nineteenth-century Red River parish of St. Andrew's and examines the origins and development of the Metis community settled near the forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers.

Robert Coutts focuses his historical eye upon the character of the Church's evangelical approach within the settlement, its attitudes towards the indigenous peoples there, and the relationship between the Church Missionary Society and the Hudson's Bay Company. Within these broader themes, The Road to the Rapids also traces the development of St. Andrew's from frontier mission to rural Anglican outpost, as well as the changing nature of economic and social life within the parish as the century progressed. Accessible and well-researched, this book contributes a fresh interpretation of a historically important subject.