When his grandmother's death follows hard upon the suicide of a patient. Christian Fowler sets off for the bleak Ohio coal town where he grew up. Upon returning to the wintry landscape of his childhood, he confronts a series of past events that culminated in brutal tragedy. As he attempts to put his grandmother's affairs in order, Fowler soon becomes obsessed with finding the boy whom, years earlier, he'd unwittingly betrayed.

This story from long ago develops with exquisite subtlety, and past and present ultimately collide when the two meet as men and come to grips with an event as stark and sudden as the heart of childhood itself. The degree of redemption Swanson allows his characters does not come easily or completely, forcing readers to grapple with the nature of responsibility and the difficulty of forgiveness.