In a Virginia hospital, forty-one-year old Matthew Winton awakens from a car accident with no memory of his life after the age of thirteen. Over time, he learns that he is a college professor who lives alone and has no family. He is also a writer, and he turns first to his writing, hoping it will show him his past. But he has written primarily fiction, and he struggles to separate the blurred lines between fiction and fact. He is helped by a policewoman who investigated his accident, and a relationship develops.

Then he comes upon something he’d written shortly before the crash. This writing disturbs him greatly and leads to a series of events that end with him traveling to Massachusetts, where he spent the first thirty years of his life, in search of ghosts from his past. Throughout, he’s been troubled by questions raised by the car accident.

What was he doing out on a deserted country road at two o’clock on a Sunday morning? He had no luggage in the car, nor anything that might have given a clue to his intentions. Even the policewoman who investigated seems to have questions about whether the crash was really an accident. As Matthew learns more about his past, he fears that his search might end back on that deserted country road at two a.m.