From the back cover: "While Hattie Clark's husband was alive, their homestead in the soaring crags of Idaho's Salmon River Canyon was their paradise. When the raging river claimed his life, Hattie grew lonelier than she thought possible. Then Toby, an eight-year-old runaway, comes into her life. An unspeakable secret has driven Toby into the wilderness to search for his great-uncle, Afton McCabe, Hattie's gold-mining neighbor.
McCabe, a loner, struggles to eke a living from a river that promises riches but delivers heartbreak. He resents Toby's intrusion, but lets him stay. After Toby is nearly killed by a devastating illness, Hattie and Afton become convinced that they must return Toby to his father, despite the boy's wish to remain in the wilderness forever. Together they take the treacherous downriver trek in an all-out confrontation with nature's fiercest elements-despite the boy's deepest desire to keep his new family together forever."
McCabe, a loner, struggles to eke a living from a river that promises riches but delivers heartbreak. He resents Toby's intrusion, but lets him stay. After Toby is nearly killed by a devastating illness, Hattie and Afton become convinced that they must return Toby to his father, despite the boy's wish to remain in the wilderness forever. Together they take the treacherous downriver trek in an all-out confrontation with nature's fiercest elements-despite the boy's deepest desire to keep his new family together forever."
