All this confirms Jack’s fears and changes Wynn’s mind. They also learn that Pierre assaulted Maia in the aftermath of the argument that Jack and Wynn heard, and that he is likely to be both violent and obsessive. Jack and Wynn learn Maia and Pierre, are married scientists.

Eventually, Maia gains enough strength and consciousness to tell them more about what happened. They also keep a close eye on their dwindling supplies, and on the woman, who has moments of clarity even within her overall experience of being seriously injured. Both he and Wynn keep a close eye on signs of the fire, which seems to be speeding up. They then pack up their canoe and set on their way down the river, hoping to outrun the fire.Īs they travel, Jack continues to speculate on the motivations and dangers associated with the man. Jack theorizes that it was the man they heard, but Wynn believes it was a bear, refusing to believe negative things about the man until they have a chance to talk to him and find out his side of the story. When Jack and Wynn return to their campsite, they discover that it has been trashed and most of their supplies either destroyed or rendered unreachable. They realize that there is no way she would survive the fire if she was left alone, and resolve to take her with them. Jack and Wynn return to where they heard the argument and find the woman, who has been severely injured.

They suspect that the man is part of the couple they heard fighting, and Jack also suspects that things between the couple are not what the man, Pierre, suggested they were. They also overhear a volatile argument between a man and a woman but, because they are in a hurry to outrun the fire, do not turn back.Ī while later when they have set up camp, Jack and Wynn are found by a man who has clearly had a traumatic experience, and who says that his wife Maia has gone missing. As they realize their only way to escape is forward to their original destination, they encounter a pair of drunken Texans who ignore their warnings about the blaze. The narrative begins with a Prologue, in which central characters Jack and Wynn realize that their long-awaited trip down a Northern Canadian river is being jeopardized by an approaching forest fire. Longer paragraphs represent long sections, and the author’s apparent intent to have the ideas and events within those sections considered together.

Paragraph divisions in this analysis represent those sections.

The narrative is presented in chapters, each of which is divided into a number of separate sections. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

The river peter heller