At the height of his career, a British surgeon has found success in both the hospital and at home. He and his wife have everything they want out of life, except the child the longs for, the child Dr. Woodruff secretly believes he may never be ready to parent. Suddenly, the delicate equilibrium of their relationship is blown apart by the arrival of shocking news. Deep in the desolate sub-Arctic wilderness of Canada where Woodruff lived and worked years before, a woman claims he is the father or her thirteen-year-old twins. Woodruff knows it cannot be true—but DNA tests don't lie. To make sense of the impossible, he must return to that frozen wilderness, where no rules and few laws apply. Leaving his shattered relationship behind, he finds that his well-guarded secrets have even deeper and more sinister layers. But the people he once knew in that godforsaken place guard secrets of their own and no one—least of all the ruthless woman at the dark core of this maelstrom—will help him uncover the truth.