After a chance meeting at a small Canadian park, Kate Corliss is sure she's made a new friend in Simone, a biochemist who's working to protect blue jays from a new avian virus. But when the two women go on an overnight camping trip, Kate wakes up alone and without her pack or boots. What kind of a friend would put her in such a situation? Kate drives her RV to Algonquin, Ontario's largest park, happy to leave the experience behind and resume her life of art, hiking and kayaking. It won't be that easy. Simone is there, too, and Kate slowly discovers her personal misfortune is a small part of ominous events taking place in Algonquin. A man falls to his death from a fire tower, most of the rescued bears die, a boy is lost in the woods. Are these events related? With the help of the park's chief warden, Kate finds the way through a maze of lies and contradictory information. She makes one important mistake: she underestimates Simone.