Nadeau traces the centrality of fur through a series of intriguing case studies, including:
-- Hollywood's take on the 330 year history of the Hudson Bay Company, founded to exploit Canada's rich fur resources
-- the life of a postwar fur fashion photographer
-- a 1950s musical called My Fur Lady
-- the battle between Brigitte Bardot's anti-fur activists and the fur industry.

Nadeau highlights the connection between "fur ladies" -- women wearing, exploiting or promoting furs -- and the beaver, symbol of Canada and nature's master builder. She shows how, in postcolonial Canada, the nation is sexualized around female reproduction and fur, which is both a crucial factor in economic development, and a powerful symbol through which the nation itself is conceived and commodified. Fur Nation demonstrates that, for Canada, fur really is the fabric of a nation.