Summary

The novel opens with a brief prologue in which an old man (later revealed to be the character of Uncle King) carries a spear and rides across the Altamaha River in a boat. In Chapter 1, brothers Hunter Loggins and Lawton Loggins arrive at the Altamaha River in Georgia. They bear the ashes of their deceased father, Hiram, who was a Vietnam War veteran. They plan to ride down the river, on which Hiram lived and worked, and scatter Hiram’s ashes in the ocean. Hunter is a college student, and Lawton is a Navy SEAL on leave. They begin to paddle down the river in two canoes. Chapter 2 takes place in 1564 in modern-day northern Florida, or “New France” (7). A French expedition, led by René de Laudonnière, arrives. Among its members is a French artist, Jacques Le Moyne, who has been tasked with...