This book tells the story of the first three or four generations of Irish-Catholic settlers in what is now Mississauga. They lived without a church building for a quarter of a century, then founded a vibrant religious centre at Elmbank, saw its importance slowly diminish and eventually abandoned the place, lured away by the manufacturing jobs becoming available in the city of Toronto at the turn of the twentieth century. The story is related in fourteen short chapters that describe their journeys from Ireland, their ways of obtaining land, what awaited them on arrival at the sites of their new homes, their methods of house construction and farming, their food and how they tended to their spiritual needs.

The narrative is complemented by a family section that records pertinent details about the first settlers and about the later families that could be termed Elmbank parishioners; people who heard mass, married and baptised their children at that place and, in a majority of instances, buried their dead there.

The first supporting appendix deals with dates of arrival and departure of the various families, the second with biographical details of the known, probable and possible interments at Elmbank, the third denotes each family's known country of origin and a final appendix lists biographical particulars of clergy associated with the "church of the Fifth Line."

The first frame church building at Elmbank was completed in 1833, its brick successor demolished in 1932 and the graveyard was eventually surrounded by the airport that arrived in 1937. It slept there, virtually abandoned, until progress demanded that the area it occupied be put to better aviation use and its occupants were moved to Assumption Cemetery in 2001. They had, however, left their imprint on the history of the area and, hopefully, this account will ensure that their contribution will not be forgotten.