Tells the story of eighteen-year-old Leslie Somers, who trudges his way through the dark Louisiana backwoods one winter in search of his father. As he walks through the woods, Leslie thinks of the other male role models in his life: the men who took him hunting and fishing, the men who mistreated him. Since Leslie has been forsaken by his mother, he can only imagine a life with this man he has never met: his father, Harlow Cagwin.