Both Stephen O’Connor and ancient Ojibwe healer, Henry Meloux, have seen visions of Henry’s death. The vision disturbs Stephen, but Meloux is less concerned about it, trusting in the Great Spirits to take him to the next world at the appropriate time. At the moment, he is most concerned with trying to help two women escape from the mercenaries looking for one of them. The women include his great niece, Rainy and Dolores Morrisseau, a woman who has come to the north woods seeking Henry’s guidance and wisdom with a personal problem in her marriage.
As Dolores, Rainy and Henry seek to elude the violent men tracking them by hiking ever deeper into the vast expanse of the land of the boundary waters, Rainy’s husband, Cork O’Connor, is trying to identify both the hunters and the reason for their pursuit.
Filled with foreboding and menace, the story is told from multiple viewpoints and builds to a dramatic conclusion. This was a very satisfying story from one of my very favorite authors.