A village named Hell -- The first search -- Winter life in Agzu -- The quiet violence of this place -- Down the river -- Chepelev -- Here comes the water -- Riding the last ice to the coast -- Village of Samarga -- The Vladimir Goluzenko -- The sound of something ancient -- A fish owl nest -- Where the mile markers end -- The banality of road travel -- Flood -- Preparing to trap -- A near miss -- The hermit -- Stranded on the Tunsha River -- An owl in hand -- Radio silence -- The owl and the pigeon -- Leap of faith -- The currency of fish -- Enter Katkov -- Capture on the Serebryanka -- Awful devils such as us -- Katkov in exile -- The monotony of failure -- Following the fish -- California of the east -- Terney County without filter -- Blakiston's fish owl conservation

"A young field scientist and conservationist tracks the elusive Blakiston's Fish Owl in the forbidding reaches of eastern Russia"--