Mae Maguire flees across two states to get away from a crazed ex-husband. She settles in her friend's fishing cabin on the Rio Grande River in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado where she hopes to pursue her art and find a new beginning.
She befriends an attractive German neighbor, a hydrologist who is affiliated with the prestigious Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico. Secrets are revealed through his stories about a World War II Camp for German prisoners that was located nearby.
Her peace is shattered when her cabin is broken into and evidence mounts that someone is watching her every move. The friend who shares his cabin with Mae cannot protect her while he is working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, so she must trust the local authorities to do it.
Mae's adventures bring her into direct contact with the harsh realities of nature. When she stumbles upon information worse than she could ever have imagined, her survival skills are tested - as are her relationships.