Wracked with guilt over his failure to prevent the murder of his friend's widow, Mazie Tucker, and convinced it was dangerous for anyone to become close to him, Boone leaves Albany and everyone he knows behind, searching for anonymity and seclusion. He believes he has found such a place in the sparsely settled community of West Harper on the eastern shore of Chautauqua Lake. But his black dog of depression, stalking him throughout his career...