The brochure promised a "moderate to difficult" six-mile hike on the Maine-New Hamshire branch of the Appalachian Trail, where nine year old Trisha McFarland was to spend Saturday with her older brother, Pete, and her recently divorced mother. When she wanders off to escape their constant bickering, then tries to catch up by attempting a shortcut through the woods, Trisha starys deeper into a wilderness full of peril and terror. Especially when night falls.

For solace she tunes her Walkman to broadcasts of the Boston Red Sox games and the gritty performances of her hero, number 36, relief pitcher Tom Gordon. When her radios reception begins to fade, Trisha imagines that Tom Gordon is with her-her key to surviving enemy known only by the slaughtered animals and mangled trees in its wake.