Alice, a seismologist working in Tokyo, is sent to a small town on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River to observe a peculiar phenomenon: the complete cessation of the tidal cycle. No more low tides, no more high tides. To the Japanese experts, this signals that a major, global earthquake is on the way. They also take it as a sign of fate that the town happens to be Alice’s birthplace. Alice does everything she can to maintain an emotional distance from the town, where she had spent an unhappy childhood. She does her research, conducts seismic probes. But she begins to wonder about things other than earthquakes when she discovers the telephone number of Marc Vandal, a charming water-bomber pilot, has mysteriously been torn from every phone book. Alice then encounters a mystery more profound than the one underground.