Colin Dobbs, a salty-tongued professor, is recovering in a hospital bed. In a review of his past, we learn about the grizzly hunt that went wrong – and how his life has changed since the incident at Daisy Creek. But the really central issues of his life emerge as Dobbs is prodded back to health by his estranged daughter. Gradually, as he learns to face the world – and his students – again, we come to see the deep disappointments that led him on his strange quest up Daisy Creek, where Archie Nicotine saved his life.