The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: McConaghy, Charlotte. Once There Were Wolves. New York: Flatiron Books, 2021.

The novel takes place in the present day, in a small town in the Scottish Highlands. The protagonist is Inti Flynn, a woman in her thirties who researches wolves and help with conservation efforts. She is currently part of a government-approved project to reintroduce wolves to Scotland, in order to reverse the negative ecological effects of humans hunting the wolves. Inti is originally from Australia, and she has only just arrived in Scotland recently. She and her team release wolves into the forest and monitor their progress in their new environment. Inti has mirror-touch synesthesia, meaning that when she looks at someone, she can feel various physical sensations that the other person feels.

The townspeople are opposed to the project, as they believe the wolves to be dangerous, both to humans and livestock. Inti and her team try to convince the townspeople that they have nothing to fear, but the townspeople do not appear to believe them. In the town, Inti lives with her twin sister Aggie. Aggie appears to have suffered some form of major trauma. She no longer speaks, and she refuses to go outside. Inti soon develops a romantic/sexual relationship with the local police chief, Duncan MacTavish. Inti despises Stuart Burns, a local man who beats his wife, opposes the wolf project, and threatens Inti. One night, Inti finds Stuart’s dead body by the side of the road. The wounds are potentially consistent with a wolf attack. Inti decides to bury the body so that the townspeople will not become even more opposed to the wolf project.

In flashbacks, the novel gradually reveals the cause of Aggie’s trauma. In Australia, Aggie married a man named Gus Holloway. Inti then received a job offer to work with wolves in Alaska. Inti, Aggie, and Gus all moved to Alaska and lived together. Over the following five years, Inti gradually became more aware of Gus’ aggression and violence towards Aggie. One night, Gus raped and beat Aggie very severely. Inti tried to intervene, but she was unable to stop Gus. Not long after, Inti tried to kill Gus, but she was unable to do so, in part because of her mirror-touch synesthesia. She instead merely intimidated Gus into promising that he would stay away from Inti and Aggie forever.

In the present-day storyline, tensions continue to rise between the wolf conservationists and the townspeople. Multiple townspeople illegal kill wolves but face no serious legal repercussions. Inti investigates Stuart’s death, and while she learns some of the townspeople’s personal secrets, she makes no progress in solving the mystery. She finds that she is pregnant, and she knows that Duncan must be the father. One day in winter, she suddenly gives birth in the forest. The wolves appear and warm Inti and the baby, saving them from starving. Eventually, Aggie and a townsperson—Red McCrae, one of the most vocal opponents of the wolf project—arrive and bring Inti safely back to the town. The townspeople gradually accept the merits of the wolf project. Aggie admits to Inti that she (Aggie) was the one who killed Stuart, as Aggie saw Stuart as a threat to Inti. Aggie decides to go live alone in the woods.