David Webster has the perfect life. But the veneer of comfort has begun to wear thin. His city - Burleigh, North Carolina - has recently become a ghost town in the wake of Wall Street raiders who bought out and dismantled the largest business in town, Burleigh Tobacco. As a result, David finds himself working for a redneck real estate tycoon. In addition, his relationship with his wife has taken a turn for the worse.

Despite these troubles his life still appears salvageable - that is, until he accidentally runs a young woman off the road and stops to help. He calls the authorities and visits her in the hospital, where she has lapsed into a sourceless coma. When she disappears without a trace, David decides to forget about her. And then, without warning, she shows up at his office and begs him to take her back to the crash site, where she claims to have lost something important.

As David becomes more deeply involved with this mysterious and attractive stranger, he realizes that her secrets could destroy his remaining illusions of stability and control. And, more disturbingly, he is not so sure that this isn't exactly what he wants.