While Hattie Clark’s husband was alive, their homestead in the soaring crags of Idaho’s Salmon River Canyon was their paradise. When the raging river claimed her husband’s life, Hattie grew lonelier than she thought possible. Then Toby, an eight-year-old runaway, comes into her life. An unspeakable secret has driven Toby into the wilderness to search for his great-uncle, Afton McCabe, Hattie’s gold-mining neighbor. McCabe, a loner, struggles to eke a living from a river that promises riches but delivers heartbreak. He resents Toby’s intrusion, but lets him stay. After Toby is nearly killed by a devastating illness, Hattie and Afton become convinced that they must return Toby to his father, despite the boy’s wish to remain in the wilds. Together they make the treacherous downriver trip in an all-out confrontation with nature’s fiercest elements. From the menace of the wilderness to the dangers of civilization, River of Our Return travels an extraordinary journey of the land and the heart.