A former travel writer, George Gates used to specialise in writing about places where people disappeared, sometimes individuals, sometimes whole societies. Since the murder of his 8-year-old son, he has written gentler stories for the town paper about flower festivals and local celebrities. Enter Arlo MacBride, a retired detective who mentions the case of Katherine Carr, a woman who vanished 20 years before, leaving nothing behind but a few poems and a strange story. It is this story that spurs Gates to inquire into its missing author's brief life and dire fate, an exploration that leads him to discoveries about life and death, mystery and resolution.