In the early 1800s, a young Scottish woman, burdened with the strange gift of "second sight", embarks on a perilous journey to find her missing sweetheart in the wilderness of Upper Canada. Confronted by a dark truth upon her arrival, Mary must choose between a second chance at life and love in a community wary of her gifts, or succumb to the dark, life-threatening shadows of her past.

SYNOPSIS:

ACT I – PROMISES AND PARTINGS

It is the year 1812. In the rugged beauty of the Scottish Highlands, our heroine Mary Urquhart is a restless young woman, weighed down by the strange and unwelcome gifts of “an da shelladh" (second sight) and healing hands. While reluctantly learning her craft under the wise old healer and seer of the glen, Mrs. Grant, Mary is forced to face uncontrollable visions of the past, the future, and the otherworld. She sees these “gifts“ as more of a curse than a blessing.

Mary yearns instead for adventure with her wild sweetheart, Duncan “dubh”, known by the locals as “Duncan the black” due to his dark moods and predisposition for trouble. They have vowed since childhood, “We are never to be parted, not in life, not in death.” But during the Beltane fires celebrations, Mary has a chilling vision that foreshadows Duncan’s fate. His family is forced from their home as victims of the Clearances and are shipped away to the wilderness of Upper Canada, leaving Mary behind with the exchange of a lock of his hair for her tartan ribbon, her powerful visions, her grief, and Duncan’s promise that he will write to her every day until he returns as a “Man of Station.”

ACT II – BEWARE THE DARK

Three years pass, having had no letters or contact, Duncan’s ghostly cries echo to Mary from across the ocean and into an ancient well: “Come, Mary. Come you to me!” Defying her family and Mrs. Grant’s warning to “Beware the dark,” she sets out to find her lost love and bring him safely home. However, her journey is fraught with peril — storm-tossed nights in a haunted castle, a deathly coffin ship crossing, and walking barefoot through the lonely, alien forests of a new world inhabited by strange peoples. Yet it’s in this world she meets Luke Anderson, a handsome, steady settler on his way to her final destination of Collivers’ Corners. However, any fleeting attraction is quickly dispelled when he reveals the tragic news: Duncan has died, and the Cameron family has already left for Scotland.

Mary awakens in a strange bed in “The Corners”, depressed, exhausted and penniless. After encouragement from a caring family, she agrees to stay and work to save money for her return fare, but she is also driven to unravel the unspoken mystery of Duncan’s death. She immerses herself in homestead life, taking on a teaching job, growing closer to Luke and his family by supporting his alcoholic mother and acting as caregiver to his younger brother, Henry — much to the chagrin of Patty Oppenshaw, who has designs on Luke. But her perceived “curious ways” by the locals and the looming “darkness” of the surrounding forest hinder her ability to settle in fully. Until... one day, a haunting call leads Mary to discover the Camerons’ abandoned cottage on Hawthorn Bay. Despite warnings about the water’s dark secret and her growing attraction to Luke, Mary determines to move into the cottage to make it her own.

Drawn to Luke over time and mentored by Alsoomse, an Indigenous woman who helps her learn how to live off the land and to embrace her gifts, Mary begins to heal. Yet Duncan’s spirit lingers, and his voice becomes more insistent! Her visions eventually turn into curses that isolate her as fires, deaths, and an uncanny summer frost strike the community. Suspicion rises, and even Luke begins to doubt her, creating friction between them.

ACT III – FREE FROM THE SHADOWS

Abandoned, alone, and isolated on Hawthorn Bay, it’s in this moment of weakness that Duncan’s cries from beyond become more seductive. An ominous vision of the hardships Duncan faced and the reasons his letters went unsent ignites in Mary a desire to honour their promise never to be separated in life or death. She commits to following Duncan into a watery grave. Then beneath the water, she finds clarity: the darkness Mrs. Grant warned of was never the forest — it was Duncan and his grasp from beyond the grave. Choosing life, her arms claw upward, her fingers grasp for anything, though with each kick, Duncan’s relentless pull drags her ever deeper. Mary fights for her life until she breaks free of him and rises from the depths to seek her own destiny.

Free to embrace her heart and the forest’s shadows, Mary confesses her love to Luke in a passionate final scene, who finally sees her for who she is, and accepts her wholly, gifts and all. They embrace, and Mary, no longer bound to the shadows of her past, looks toward a new life and love on Hawthorn Bay.

SHADOW IN HAWTHORN BAY