The university town of Ithaca New York, blessed with numerous waterfalls and beautiful, dangerous gorges, provides a cosmopolitan yet bucolic backdrop for this tale of transformation. Here Stephen and Michelle Wolcott live an ostensibly idyllic, albeit wintry life, comfortably oblivious of the constant interplay between the subtle and material worlds. Gathered for a Christmas party at their well-ordered home, old friends and a new neighbor are treated to the appearance of a fox in the snowy yard. For some it is magical, for others innocuous, for all it proves significant. Following the party, Michelle's old trouble with migraines returns, bringing frightening sensations, confusion, and the recurring vision of a body in the water. With the aid of a shaman, she approaches a new understanding of the nature of existence, learns to open her heart, and finds that spiritual forces are conspiring to take her life in a new direction.

"... but in Japan," she continued, her soft voice taking on a mysterious quality, "the foxes are messengers of Inari. They are called kitsune and they appear in human form, standing up and walking on their hind legs, so one does not know it is a kitsune at all, until it is too late..."