It all began when a tree demolished a doghouse during a windstorm, revealing something momentous. Initially, Steven and John thought it was a relic from a distant past, to be examined carefully, then filed away and forgotten. But that didn't happen, and chains from the past soon begin to rattle.

There's truth in the statement that the past is never dead. The veil concealing the greed and excesses of logging in the nineteenth century begins to lift. One death is soon followed by others, and it quickly becomes evident that family secrets, thought to be long dead and buried, are alive and displaying robust and malicious health.

Through it all, a lifelong friendship and an almost mystical connection to an old forest help lay to rest a tumultuous past and find a new way forward.