Ruth is a journalist, a no-nonsense Midwestern who yearns for a child with her new husband Hal. Hal is the father of two teenage boys; he wants another child, but more than anything he wants Ruth to become the mother she has always wanted to be. Together they find Callie, a nineteen-year-old with ambitions to go to college. They all seem perfect for each other. But within a day of the baby’s birth, Callie has a change of heart—and engineers a harrowing escape from the hospital, baby in tow. When Ruth and Hal discover that she and their daughter are gone, a whole series of doubts and secrets are revealed, and it’s no longer clear what’s “right” and what’s “wrong.” Set in the north Midwest in the middle of winter, The Surrogate follows Ruth, Hal, and Callie through the ice and snow, they run away from, and ultimately towards, each other.