pEmma's Waterloo is based on actual events. Love, jealousy, and murder shake the small rural community of Waterloo, Michigan, on May 31, 1896.ppEmma, a young and beautiful woman of 19, agonizes as her purported affianced relationship with Lewis rapidly disintegrates during the preceding winter months. Lewis's growing reliance on alcohol transforms his demeanor from kind to belligerent. His increasingly boorish behavior pushes Emma away and into the arms of another man. Lewis's malicious bitterness prevents him from accepting reality. A series of escalating events results in a violent murder.ppAs facts leading to the killing surface they become entangled with deep family bonds and a grieving mother's religious conviction. Soon afterward details of the murder are manipulated in an attempt to obscure the truth.ppEmma's Waterloo sets the stage by drawing the reader into the arduous journeys each of the story's three families made as they forged their way into sparsely populated Michigan an