Carolyn is excited to be off to Arbutus Point Lodge on Vancouver Island, where she hopes to meet up with her husband, Dann. He’s arriving from Brazil for a week to ten days off from his overseas job. Father O’Brien is going for a few days before Dann arrives. Every year, Carolyn and Dann have gone to this lodge to relax and recharge. It’s their time.

Recently, Carolyn found that the long-term manager retired, and the man Carolyn had been engaged to before she met Dann is now the manager. He was involved in the drug trade many years ago and was able to talk his way out of jail time. She doesn’t trust that he has changed and would like nothing more than to avoid speaking with him. One other thing, she never told Dann about Robert Scott. She wanted nothing more than to forget how humiliated and deceived she had been by him.

Father seems preoccupied, and Carolyn hopes this time away will help him solve whatever is going on. Time in nature can do that.

They go for their first walk in the forest that follows the shoreline. It’s a beautiful fall day, and the last thing they expect to see is a body partially covered with leaves.