The Vales seem like a normal Canadian family, but they are not. Patriarch Joseph Vale has a secret.

When the children and grandchildren drive north from Toronto to visit, they bring along their own problems and secrets. The novel takes place over a weekend visit, with multiple narrators, each offering their very personal take on what unfolds. Along with the riveting drama, it is the unveiling of inner lives, feelings, memories, and relationships that make the story so moving.

The range of voices is as varied as it is deep. From Roland and Jay, pre-teens as different from each other as the characters in the online game they’re addicted to, to teenagers Danny and Ziggy, obsessed with an unopened love letter and a haze of blue smoke, to their middle-aged parents, like Bobby, a closet day trader with OCD.

Lastly, the grandparents, Joseph and Grace, wrestle with the memory and health issues of old age, and Joseph’s secret that threatens them all.

Surrounded by nature, the Vales are secluded and remote. But they are not alone. Existing in parallel to the world of the Vales is a sinister underbelly with its own set of secrets. Over the course of one stormy winter weekend, the Vales brush up against this evil, which triggers a sequence of events and a level of intensity beyond their darkest imaginations.