THE MORNING WIND

At Mt. Olympus, Hank immediately feels out of place. The lodge is run by Cass, 38, a charismatic woman with an intimate knowledge of Greek mythology and astronomy, and her nineteen-year-old son, Caph. A quotation from Thoreau hangs prominently in the main cabin: “The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted, but few are the ears to hear it.”

When Hank sees Cass, old memories consume him. Twenty years earlier, Hank and Cass were deeply in love. One day, without explanation, Cass disappeared from his life. Now she’s standing in front of him, older but unmistakably the same woman. Neither is prepared for the emotions that immediately return.

Hank tries to ignore the past, but Cass makes that impossible. During a midnight encounter on the lodge dock, she tells him she left because she believed she was holding him back. Hank isn’t satisfied. He needs to know the truth.

Meanwhile, the weekend unfolds around them. The guests hike, raft and ride horseback under Caph’s skillful direction, while Cass and the enormous, taciturn but caring Herman, a Makah tribe descendant, prepare lavish meals and entertain everyone with stories of mythology and the stars. But Hank is increasingly distracted by the unfinished business between himself and Cass.

Their next meeting comes during a violent midnight storm. Before Cass arrives, Caph confronts Hank, accusing him of pursuing his mother despite having a wife. Cass sends her son away, and Hank finally gets the chance to confront her alone. The confrontation becomes emotional as Cass breaks down and the two nearly kiss.

Then Amy appears.

Horrified by what she sees, Amy runs into the woods. Hank follows, with Caph and Herman close behind. In the darkness and driving rain, Hank finds Amy—but steps into a hidden bear trap. The jaws tear into his calf, severing an artery. By the time Herman carries him back to the lodge, Hank has lost a dangerous amount of blood.

With no conventional medical facility nearby, Caph’s “more than friend” Nate, a forest ranger, rushes Hank to the nearest treatment facility—a small veterinary clinic. There, Dr. Tomkins makes an extraordinary decision: because Caph’s blood type matches Hank’s, he transfuses the teenager’s blood into Hank, saving his life.

The crisis brings the weekend to an end. Before Hank and Amy leave, Cass confides in Amy, claiming that she had orchestrated the meeting on the dock because of a schoolgirl crush she’d once had on Hank. But the explanation doesn’t add up.

Back home, Hank receives an unexpected call from Cass. She asks him to meet her at the local IHop. They end up at a park across from their old high school. There, Cass finally reveals the truth: Caph is Hank’s son.

Twenty years earlier, Cass became pregnant. When Hank’s mother, Marnie, discovered the pregnancy, she secretly paid Cass to disappear from Hank’s life. Cass left, raised Caph alone and never told Hank that he had a son. After this revelation comes more upsetting news: Caph is seriously ill and desperately needs a bone-marrow transplant. With Amy’s blessing, Hank undergoes tissue typing and discovers that he may be Caph’s only chance for survival. But the blood transfusion at the clinic has created another terrifying possibility: Hank may have been exposed to the Philadelphia chromosome, raising the possibility that he now caarries the same genetic abnormality associated with CML—chronic myelogenous leukemia.

For Hank, the stakes have suddenly become painfully personal. The son he never knew existed gave him his blood when Hank was dying. Now Hank may be the one person capable of saving his son’s life.

Further testing clears Hank to donate. The transplant is successful, and Caph survives.

Hank returns to Amy and their children with a new understanding of the family he has. Cass and Caph move forward with their lives, which includes a surprise proposal from Herman.

Their past cannot be changed. But it can finally be understood. And somewhere through and beyond the mountains, the morning wind continues to blow—the poem of creation uninterrupted, waiting for those willing to hear it.