Pitt Cain is a blue collar tough guy, hockey brawler, and heavy drinker trying to deal with the death of his best friend, the loss of his marriage, and the relationship between these events. When Pitt was fourteen years old, his father had come home drunk with a friend who tried to assault Pitt's mother. Young and tough, Pitt had beaten up both men. But Jonas Mulaire, the man who had accompanied Pitt's father that night, never forgot. Pitt's best friend Tom, an aboriginal man, had once told him of a perfect place in the mountains, several days on foot from the Town of Emerald Lake. One night after losing a hockey fight for the first time in his life, Pitt decided to backpack into the mountains and find peace away from his troubled life. But to find the lake Tom had described. Pitt had to pass by the meadow where Tom died of a gunshot wound, during a bear attack. While Pitt set up camp for the first night of his trip, two men came up the trail and camped in the same clearing. He thought he recognized one of the strangers but the other was an enigma. The unlikely trio hiked deep into the mountains. The same old cinnamon bear that had attacked Tom years before attacked and dragged away one of the men who had joined in the hike. Pitt followed the blood trail, but then the bear returned and charged Pitt, who managed to defend himself against the big animal only to find himself looking down the barrel of a gun. Aided in his escape by a tremor that shook loose part of the mountain side, Pitt found his way to the mysterious pristine lake that Tom had described. But the trauma of the bear attack and the ensuing blood loss made Pitt's survival doubtful. Would he recover from his wounds? Would his estranged wife escape the deception of the man who had taken Pitt's place in her life? Would Pitt live to follow the advice of his mother, who appeared to him in a vision as he fought for his life? Pitt Cain is a story of brokenness and loss, and it is a story of forgiveness.
