When yoga instructor Ava leads nine students from her San Diego studio to Patagonia's legendary Futaleufú River, she promises them transformation—the real kind, not the Instagram version. What she doesn't mention is that real transformation always costs something.

Claire, barely holding herself together after losing custody of her children, is running from a life she can no longer bear. Peter's boyfriend gave him an ultimatum: do something that scares you, or lose me. Linda, a psychiatrist who can't control her own panic attacks, needs to remember what it feels like not to be in charge. And Raj—bright, exhausting Raj—wants nothing more than to integrate his spiritual seeking into something tangible, something real.

The Futaleufú will give them all exactly what they came for.

Local guides speak of the river as "she"—a goddess with moods as wild as her beauty, demanding respect, promising nothing. When a storm rolls in faster than predicted and the river reveals what she's truly capable of, nine people who thought they were there for yoga and self-discovery find themselves fighting for something far more primal.

Stranded in one of the most remote corners of the world, they will learn that wilderness doesn't care about your intentions. That survival strips away everything you thought you were. That some transformations can't be undone.

And that not everyone who seeks the wild comes home to tell about it.

Inspired by the author's own Patagonia retreat experiences, this is a story about the difference between the journey you plan and the journey that claims you.

For listeners who loved Cheryl Strayed's WILD and Alex Garland's THE BEACH—a literary thriller about what happens when spiritual seeking meets the unforgiving truth of wild places.