Emma Starling once had big plans for her life, but she's lost her way. She's come back to small-town Everton to care for her father, who is dying from a mysterious brain disease. Clive Starling has been hallucinating small animals, as well as having visions of the ghost of a long-dead naturalist, Ernest Harold Baynes. This ghost has been giving Clive some ideas on how to spend his final days. Emma arrives home knowing she must face her dad's illness, her mom's judgment, and her younger brother's recent stint in rehab, but she's unprepared to find that her former best friend is missing, with no one bothering to look for her. The police don't spend much time looking for drug addicts. Emma's dad is the only one convinced the woman might still be alive, and Emma is hopeful he could be right. Emma isn't really trying to be a hero, but somehow she and her father bring about just the kind of miracle the town needs.