Newly divorced Sara Wolseley exiles herself and her two daughters to a cottage on Harris Lake in Western Quebec in the middle of a bitterly cold winter. The ice on the lake is clear that year, like black cellophane from shore to shore.

A failed actress-turned romance writ- er, Sara has submitted a manuscript to a publisher, confi dent it will sell as she battles her daughter’s misery, un- reliable plumbing, and memories of her failed marriage. When the book is rejected, she is hired to clean for a reclusive man who turns her away. Her failures piling up, Sara escapes to the lake where she discovers a child under the ice. Seven year old Oralee Pelletier has been missing for six months.