an's devotion to North Carolina's Green River Valley and the camp he built to share its wonders; his daughter's pledge to hike the Blue Ridge, never suspecting that a serial killer is stalking her; and nine-year-old Alvin Magee's heart-warming discovery of freedom and responsibility in a place apart from his adult world.

Charismatic widower, Tiger Morrison, spent a lifetime saving children from nature-deficit disorder, only to find himself in the fight of his life to protect his undisturbed world from the land grab waging in the Southern Blue Ridge Mountains. He's fighting to win Katie Warlick too, but she can't forgive him for not wanting her the way she wanted him twenty years ago.