Near Traverse Bay in a cabin on the shore, the sons of an award winning engineer meet Vivian, the girl of their fantasies. Bernard, a dreamer, tries to bond with her over his mysterious connection to a spiritual realm she believes in but he questions, while his brother Lance woos her with adventure and travel. Each time Lance whisks Vivian away from the small cabin, Bernard retreats further from the world, taking refuge in the strange half-hidden life of the forest. There, he encounters a silent spirit of the woods that fascinates him. When the spirit finally speaks, Bernard loses all certainty of his place in the world. From Dr. Brivic, Ulysses Scholar- "Roots and Red Leaves is a novelette about a self-destructive dreamer who falls in love with a tree. The writing has a simplicity that seems naive at first but grows increasingly expressive. The last two chapters build to become powerful, beautiful, and imaginatively rich and complex. The limitation of pathos is counter balanced by insight and compassion to produce a fine work of art."