Psychiatrist grace delia rood may have pushed her brother off a mountain on their annual ski trip to eagle lair''s lodge in vermont. every year, grace and her brother, michael, both doctors at the leaf, a hospice for the dying, take time out of their busy schedules to make the trip, however, this year something devastating has happened. coming to the most dangerous part of the skiing course, within a few feet of the thousand foot drop, michael suddenly veers toward the edge. grace, in a panic, grabs on to michael and watches in horror as the two of them go over the edge. through some trick of fate grace watches as her brother smashes into the side of the mountain far below her, spreading a bloody red swatch to show his resting place, while grace finds herself dumped into a pine tree sticking out from the side of the mountain. she is saved by the ski patrol and has only suffered a broken ankle and a concussion from her traumatic experience. however, from the moment michael hits the side of the mountain, grace hides behind a mask of insanity telling the ski patrol that a mysterious force took her brother off the mountain. and that is the delusion she adopts until she is forced to tell the truth at palmer hall.