A magnificent gyrfalcon, soaring in the air over rocky cliffs, is winged by a hunter and falls to earth wounded. Rescued and taken to a nearby farmhouse, the bird will irrevocably change the lives of her savior, Michael Somers, and the woman and child Somers comes to love. Somers has returned after many years to his hometown of Little River Bend to unlock the secrets from his own past that almost drove him to destroy his family in one night of irrational violence. Released from treatment but shunned by his neighbors, Somers is determined to heal the bird whom he has named Cully, and release her to freedom. Watching from afar as Somers coaxes the bird to fly is a deeply troubled little boy, Jamie Baker. Jamie has lost the power of speech after witnessing his father's death in a hunting accident, and his mother, Susan, yearns to free her child from his self-made prison. Slowly, a tender emotional bond forms between the desperately lonely child, his mother, and the strange man who seems able to heal. But soon they find themselves in terrible danger as the hunter who tried to kill Cully stalks her again - and plans to wreak vengeance on Somers.