Skye McLir is a loner who tried to fill the void in her life with the adrenaline rush of emergency medicine, but she never wanted to be a doctor. Disillusioned and disaffected, she comes home for the funeral of her grandfather Lucas Outlawe, a reclusive rebel who may have left her his property to atone for the transgression that resulted in her exile from her family. But Skye finds no sanctuary at Outlawe Lake. Others covet the secluded Eden in the New England woods and try to drive her out again. Investigation of a current murder turns up another corpse, dating back to the days when Lucas Outlawe provided refuge to draft dodgers and war resisters during the Vietnam conflict. A lonely detective, a randy lawyer and a newfound nephew compete for Skye's attention, and a dark figure from her distant past returns to trouble her with memories only they share.