e in Chicago appears picture-perfect-poised, static, and artificial. But when her boyfriend, Kirk, breaks the frame and kicks her out of his condo on their anniversary, Mo is too embarrassed to head east to face her parents' disappointment. Instead, she reaches out to the only lifeline she has left-her deceased best friend's lover, John, a former soldier now living on the edge of Montana's wilderness.

Together, they work for John's Big Steep River Expeditions-the premier, and only, rafting company in Bonaventure, a town not exactly in the middle of nowhere but middle-of-nowhere adjacent-and Mo finds new friends and a temporary family along the banks of the river. Soon she discovers a sinister force, one that John has fought before, only this time the battle will require supernatural powers from them both if they're to survive.