1894-Devastated by the deaths of her husband and son during an epidemic in Ghana, Dr. Leah Maays returns home to Edith's Bay, Maine. Hoping to continue her medical career, she discovers the community is hostile to female doctors.

Enter Duncan Shay. After years of being ostracized for murdering a man while robbing a bank, he's developed a persona that can freeze a glass of water.

Unaware Duncan is shunned, Leah tends to a gouge on his hand as if he's just another regular fellow, making Duncan realize the walls he's built to keep others out are too weak to contain his yearnings to belong.

Though drawn to him, Leah resists Duncan's friendship because she can't establish a practice if she, too, is ostracized. To have Leah in his life, Duncan must convince everyone, including himself, that he's more than the worst thing he's ever done in his life.

The novel explores the machinations of a small, rural community in Maine at the turn of the century just as women were beginning to step out of traditional roles.