Emmeline Hartfell is around 10 years old; she is not entirely sure of her age. She lives in a one-room cabin with her father John on a remote island in an archipelago off British Columbia. Emmeline does not remember a time she did not live there; by her admission, “my father was my world” (5). Together, the two maintain their quiet life. He gives her school lessons every day, and they forage for food: mostly fruits, vegetables, and occasionally clams. They are content to live in the quiet of the woods. She reads from her father’s spare library, especially favoring a lushly illustrated book of fairy tales. One story, she notices, has been ripped out.

Emmeline’s father maintains a workshop where shelves and drawers teem with tiny, carefully stoppered bottles that each bear a scrap of scented-paper. Her father is a scent-hunter—he uses a sleek, silver machine the size of a loaf of bread to manufacture these exquisite strips of paper, each with a different scent found on the island. The scents replicate the aromas of wild flowers, the evening rain, and the “heavy barked” (11) firs, among others. For each scent, the father offers a story to Emmeline centered on a fictional hero he named Jack the Scent Hunter.