THE DEATH OF ALAN CHANDLER Lilly Chandler is serene; little ruffles the waters of her life, whereas her husband, Alan, suffers recurring anxiety attacks. Drawn together in college they tacitly agreed to ask few questions of the others past. As Alan once wondered, was the waters of Lilly's soul so deep he could not measure it, or was his lead line simply coiling up in shallow but murky waters? After a late night domestic fight, during which Lilly launched most of their best china at Alan, he takes off for their cabin at Red Lake. In the early morning hours he careens off the road in an attempt to save an errant deer's life. His car is submerged and he is swept away. Lilly Chandler awakes with a bad hangover, blood on the kitchen floor, and a missing husband. When Alan fails to return, she is forced to deal with her natural inclination to ignore troubles and hope they will go away. She reports him as missing to the police. When his boss calls she lies and tells him that her husband is sick. A police dispatcher notices her conflicting stories. Filling in for a detective who is on sick leave, Sgt. Ray Maddox investigates. Circumstantial evidence rapidly accumulates that Alan may be the victim of murder.