The Mattamuskeet Lodge in rural North Carolina, once a paradise for hunters, now stands abandoned near the edge of the lake. Yet Margaret Windley, a local artist, still remembers the day, twenty years before, when she danced there at the annual Christmas ball with the love of her young life, John Ashton, a lawyer's son from New York. Margaret has heard nothing from John since that Christmas, but when a letter arrives from his brother, she will be drawn back into the story of their relationship, hopefully to finally learn what became of their love.