June 13, 1886, in the new city of Vancouver, fifteen-year-old Noble enters the office of the Northwest Timber Company in a hand-me-down suit. He tries to pass for a man fit to work on a logging crew. A spark from a brush fire ignites the wooden building. The office and much of the city are incinerated. Noble too is caught in the fire.

More than a hundred years later, while on vacation in Mexico, Sean Hughes finds a message on the beach. Back in Vancouver, the messages continue and become more ominous. Sean is convinced that his apartment is haunted by malevolent spirits. Mandy, his neighbor, is certain that the messages are a plea for help. Sean and Mandy's determination to decipher the messages leads to questions of trust and betrayal, loneliness and forgiveness. The answers they find will challenge them to believe that hope can outlast death.