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Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer's third book, Perfecting, begins along the Pecos River and runs due north, both in terms of narrative and geography, to a secluded commune-cum-cult in Northern Ontario called the Family. It is along this river that the two central female characters of Perfecting, Hattie and Martha, forge an unlikely bond: The elderly Hattie takes pity on the exhausted Martha, who has travelled all the way down from rural Ontario to find answers about her lover, commune leader Curtis Woolf.

Pushed away by the Family and Curtis's conflicting messages of scorn and love, Martha makes her way south, apparently pennilessly, with nothing except her barren womb, some hippie fashions and Curtis's gun. Hattie accepts Martha into her modest adobe even though Martha possesses the very weapon that murdered one of her three sons, Edgar.

• Perfecting, by Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer, Goose Lane, 331 pages, $22.95

Through the shifting points of view of seven of the main players, what unfolds is a family tragedy of Greek proportions, a family feud that encompasses three generations of Woolf men and three very different versions of family.

There is little mystery about the initial act that spurs Curtis's exile north: He shoots his half-brother, Edgar, in the chest under some cryptic direction from Hollis Woolf, the patriarch of the Woolf clan.

The alcoholic, criminally minded, eczema-ravaged Hollis would be an anti-hero if he had any redeeming qualities, but he is only seen conning customers at his gas station, manipulating one of his many children, abusing his wife, Maeve, or messing with the love-struck Hattie, with whom he has three illegitimate sons, among them Colm and Aubie, Edgar's full brothers and Curtis's half-brothers. Colm and Aubie, who still live in town, realize that Martha's arrival is a harbinger of Curtis's imminent return, and herein starts Act Three of this family epic.

“ Themes of cult-like devotion, seduction, violence and revenge, as well as the messy nature of family politics and betrayal, are seamlessly introduced”

Perfecting focuses on the ways Curtis's single act of misjudgment and misguided violence facilitates the ruin of an already highly dysfunctional family. It turns out that, for Curtis and perhaps also for his brothers, fleeing his scrubby New Mexico hometown, his Mormon roots and his father's unyieldingly destructive affection is the likely best thing that ever could have happened to a boy like Curtis – Hollis's favourite child – as it soon becomes clear that everything Hollis loves he destroys.

Curtis is described as the type of man who has the good looks and pure charisma leaders like Mormon founder Joseph Smith and People's Temple founder Jim Jones emanated to recruit followers. Kuitenbrouwer's brief descriptions of life at the commune reveal the ad hoc fashion in which Curtis has appropriated elements of Mormonism, straight-up Christianity and 1960s free love to fashion a religious environment where members of the Family make candles and tend to an apiary, in between prayer, discussion, work and lovemaking.

Themes of cult-like devotion, seduction, violence and revenge, as well as the messy nature of family politics and betrayal, are seamlessly introduced, but the too-busy story prevents any deep examination of these topics. Though the plot is intricate and ambitious, and the story's many threads come together in an accessible and successful way, plot is Perfecting's greatest strength – and weakness.

For example, while the requisite twist for such a well-laid story makes for a satisfying ending, character complexity and development, along with a closer attention to detail and style, are sacrificed. The tension between writing style, character development and plot would not be an issue if Kuitenbrouwer's very sensory prose style and careful character portraits did not inherently promise a greater focus than an expansive and tragic family yarn.

Then again, as Tolstoy pointed out, perhaps all we have is the structure of story and the structure of the unhappy family. Perhaps, like the images of hives and honeycombs that dominate Perfecting, along with a host of other violent and dramatic family tableaus, Kuitenbrouwer's novel intends only to hint at the throbbing possibilities within each individual beneath the surface of their personal tumult. Perhaps the many characters within the world of this novel – like the industrious yet pernicious bees – are representative of some larger, godlike purpose as they busy themselves and serve an ideal of family, love and god, despite relentless reminders of their very mortal imperfections.

Ibi Kaslik has recently developed an obsession with Mormonism and its intrinsic link to American history. She is the author of Skinny and the indie-rock novel The Angel Riots.