Chapters 1, 2, and 3 Summary

This book tells the separate yet faintly connected stories of Deanna, Lusa, and Garnett through a spring and summer in a small region in Appalachia. They all experience loneliness and loss but realize the importance of human interaction and the connection between all creatures.

In Chapter One, a solitary woman is silently moving through the forest, following tracks of a creature of which she is not yet sure. For the past two years she has been free to be unself-conscious and herself. When she comes across where the animal has marked its territory, she sniffs and realizes, although it is not what she hoped for, it is a somewhat rare bobcat. She stands and he is looking directly at her. He seems to be a hunter and introduces himself as Eddie Bondo. He is much younger than her and has a...