Riley Marie Finn lives a stolid, conventional life, every detail planned and unexpected and dull. But when her boyfriend dumps her and the school district where she teaches releases her due to budget concerns, Riley's whole world turns upside down. Jilted and jobless and determined to change her fate, she heads to the Adirondacks in search of summer employment, where she ends up lost. Rescued by a broody forest ranger who directs her to the hamlet of Wanakena, she is hired in place of a woman whose dead body is discovered at the very place Riley appeared.

Josh Waylon is a forest ranger haunted by the ghost of his unfaithful wife, the first victim of the Wilderness Strangler one year ago. With a battered heart and a cloud of suspicion hanging over him, he swears off human contact until Riley invades his territory.

Broken and desperate and unable to resist their mutual attraction, Riley and Josh join forces to flush out the 'Wilderness Strangler' and clear their names. Can their growing feelings for each other heal the damage of their past lives? Can they solve the dual murders before one of them becomes the next victim?