It's been a few years since Fiona Bristow has moved to Orcas Island. Within the small, tight-knit island community she's built up her business, a canine rescue centre that trains dogs to track missing persons. Whether they are lonely travellers on a hiking trip gone wrong or disappearances of a more sinister nature, more than once Fiona has been the last hope for those lost in Washington's vast wilderness.

Other than her work, Fiona doesn't ask for much: the peace of the landscape, the companionship of her dogs, the safe haven of friends and family. Romantic entanglements are very far down on her list - and certainly not with Simon Doyle, an artist newly arrived from the mainland. Impossibly rude and impossibly handsome, he suddenly seems to be around an awful lot. But he doesn't know that Fiona harbours a terrible secret, and as her past unexpectedly catches up with her, she has to decide whether past grief will keep her from ever loving again . . .