Though fifteen-yearFinn's badly burned hand and broken leg are healing, the traumatic effects of the small-plane crash that killed his parents and sister have left him unable to speak. Psychiatrists have told Finn that to regain the power of speech he must relive each step of the tragedy. Now living with his grandmother on her Vermont farm where he has vacationed all his life and which he loves, he cannot make himself face the horrors of the fatal accident.

Renewing his friendship with Julia, nearly fourteen, helps. A nearby neighbor, she comes each day to train Gran's new filly. Together, they discover animal -- half wolf, half dog -- living wild in a dense pine forest on the farm, and it slowly begins to trust Finn after he rescues it from a trap. The routine of their lives is jolted when Finn and Julia discover that drug dealers are using an abandoned dry well in the forest as a, drop for their supplies. Then one day, when Julia is away for a week, Finn finds a packet of cocaine carelessly dropped by a local pusher. Should he try it to gain escape from the torment of his memories? And can he and Julia save the wolfdog that is wrongly suspected of killing sheep?

As the hot, dry summer nears its end, tension builds almost unbearably, sweeping the reader along to the riveting climax of the unforgettable novel.