After five years of self-imposed exile on the rivers of America, trout bum Ned "Dog" Oglivie has burned his waders and hat, given away his rod, and turned his Cruise Master RV away from the famous Hemingway water in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, bound for reconciliation with his past. But some men never make it home. John Galligan is the author of "The Nail Knot," "The Blood Knot," "The Clinch Knot," and "Red Sky, Red Dragonfly." He lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

The Dog is in Livingston, Montana, daydreaming about fishing the Stone and, as usual, subsisting on Swisher Sweets, vodka-Tang, and the hope that pretending to forget will be enough. He's forged a few tenuous friendships, and now finds himself watching from the bank as troubled local girl Jesse Ringer leads D'Ontario Sneed into the swift current of young love. It's sweet, really ... but some of the locals object to the relationship on the basis of Sneed's skin color. Then the vibrant, wild Jesse is found shot in the head, and Sneed is passed out in her car, gun beside him, window seams taped, and engine running. Sneed is hospitalized for severe carbon monoxide poisoning and can't string together a sentence to defend himself, so it falls to the Dog. If only the Dog could run from his life without ending up in the tangle and snarl of the lives of others. A man who wants to lose himself in the current must be careful of his backcast; it'll always keep him tethered to a life he's trying to forget.

The last thing The Dog wanted was to find another body. But there was Annie Adams-the barn lady-floating dead at his feet, her easel and paints set up on the bridge above his head. And so The Dog wades his way through Kussmaul country encountering a confessing nine year old, a dispute over trespassing, a shunned Amish woman, and a quite possibly rabid beaver. And The Dog knows, this is not a fishing trip.

The going has gotten tough, and Ned “Dog” Oglivie has gone fishing. Fly fishing. For trout. All across America. At least until his money runs out . . . Driven by tragedy to turn his back on human society, the Dog is on a quest to fish himself into oblivion. And he’s nearly made it. Playing the back highways of America in a wounded old RV . . . provisioned with a supply of peanut butter sandwiches, bad cigars, and vodka-Tang . . . armed with a loaded pistol (for when the money runs out) . . . the Dog is nearly at the end of his tether when he rolls into little Black Earth, Wisconsin, intending to fish the yellow sally stonefly hatch . . . and finds a body instead. Who killed Jake Jacobs, fellow fly fisher and late-coming agitator who was trying to save Black Earth Creek? Why was Jacobs disfigured in such a peculiar way? Why does the Dog give a damn? Can he rekindle his faith and interest in humankind? By caring about the death of a stranger, can the Dog recover his own life? Can he untie The Nail Knot?