Synopsis
Ginny has no roots, no family, not much money. She needs a place to live so she can sort out — and hopefully write about — what just happened to her in Wales. If she can tell her story, maybe she will find peace. This run down house on on an island in Maine is affordable. It might just be the ticket. Hopefully, the sea, the snow, and the silence will help her to repair what’s left of her mind. She craves solitude, signs the lease and says a prayer.
The next day, the former owner’s house cleaner, Rose, stops by when she sees lights are on. She says people keep finding a squatter in their sheds and boathouses. Ginny says she is not a squatter; she’s a writer and she’s rented the house. Delighted the house will be lived in, Rose describes her former employer, Larry, who was also a writer and whose body she lovingly washed after he died. So much for solitude.
When Ginny comes downstairs the next morning, she discovers an elderly man standing in her cold living room dressed for summer. Is this the squatter?
No, says the intruder — Lawrence S. Hall, Emeritus, deceased.
This man isn’t dead, but never mind that. Lawrence S. Hall — Rose’s Larry — wrote the award-winning short story, The Ledge! Ginny studied The Ledge in college. The Ledge takes place in Maine — a harrowing account of a father and two boys who were stranded on a ledge and drowned. Larry hands Ginny her binder full of notes about Wales. He sat up all night he said, reading it. “Want help with your novel?” he says.
Ginny had hoped to find sanctuary. Instead, she finds a brilliant, demanding compatriot, haunted by his own ghosts.