Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single-engine plane in which he is flying crashes.  Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a tattered windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present - and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parents' divorce.  But now Brian has no time for anger, self-pity, or despair - it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive.