After a trip to Boston to secure continued funding for her research, Dr. Samantha Jorgensen returns to the quiet of her mountain cabin and the owls she’s been studying. Once thought to dwell only in the desert, the Desert Tawny Owl's surprising shift to forested habitats offers Sam a rare glimpse into real-time adaptation. But even as she immerses herself in the rhythms of the wild, the outside world presses in—through a strained romance, the constant buzz of technology, and a lingering sense that something far bigger is beginning to shift beyond the trees.