Graden, a young man living on his father's farm near Byron City, is one of a large number of men making up a search party looking for Danny, Graden's six-year-old nephew. The boy went missing earlier in the day when his grandfather fell asleep while watching him. Danny had wanted to build a play house in the backyard and wandered off into the forest in search of wood. Graden's older sister June stays in the house watching after her daughter Marcia, who thinks it is unfair that Danny doesn't have to go to bed at bedtime, not understanding what is going on. The first day the boy goes missing, Graden searched all day and came back at night to rest. People from Byron City, including the sheriff and his bloodhounds as well as some other townsfolk, local forest rangers and game wardens, and the national guardsmen, all came to aid in the search. One day, Graden went out with a group, then he got lost himself in the thick woods. Shortly after he was found by another man, who had turned out to only be a few hundred yards away. The search lasted for nearly a week. Danny's father Kendall Jackson searched the hardest, barely sleeping at all. Once, someone shot a signal gun, which made June hopeful, but it was only because the person had fallen and sprained their ankle, not because Danny had been found. The tracking dogs occasionally picked up scents, but they kept losing them and eventually all became too worn out to continue. Over time, the men, most of whom had never met Danny, have to go home. Graden, Kendall Jackson, a news photographer, and one of June's old suitors were the last four men still searching. They believe that they should at least continue looking for Danny until dark. But when it begins to snow, they realize that it is too late and that the boy is lost for good.