Backtrack

Peter Bower, a troubled psychotherapist, is haunted by nightmares and eerie visions tied to the death of his daughter Evie in a street accident a year earlier, a tragedy for which he blames himself. His wife Carol is overwhelmed by depression and rarely gets out of bed, leaving Peter to bear the weight of grief and guilt.

In his practice, Peter treats several clients referred by his mentor Duncan. One evening a mute girl named Elizabeth Valentine appears in the waiting room, offering a name on a card and then writing the numbers 12787 on Peter’s notepad before fleeing as a train rumbles by. The next day she returns; as another train passes, she begins choking, which Peter records before she vanishes again. When he shows the recording to Duncan, Duncan insists he hears nothing and suggests Peter is hallucinating Elizabeth out of guilt over Evie. Duncan even notes that Elizabeth’s initials echo Evie’s name, deepening Peter’s unease.

Driven to understand Elizabeth, Peter learns she died on 12-7-87, and he discovers a disturbing pattern: all of his patients died on or near that same date. He calls Duncan for guidance, only to encounter the unsettling truth that Duncan has no reflection and is, in fact, a ghost. Disturbed, Peter follows a map that points toward a train line leading to his hometown, False Creek, and travels there alone, staying with his father William, a retired cop. In a local bar, he reconnects with a childhood friend, Barry, and tries to broach a horrifying incident they both kept secret. Barry recoils from the conversation and urges Peter to keep quiet about any confession.

As their youths, Barry had led Peter to a hidden spot where couples would meet in cars. While they watched, a train approached, and in their haste to move their bikes away, neither got there in time. The derailment killed forty-seven people, and Peter would eventually realize many of the victims were the people who would become his patients. From that moment, Peter is haunted by the spirits of Evie, Felix (a patient), and Elizabeth.

The next morning, Peter goes to the police and confesses to Officer Barbara Henning. She explains that charges are unlikely due to the statute of limitations, and reveals that she herself is the daughter of one of the crash victims. Barbara tells Peter that her mother was the only local killed in the accident and that William’s kindness at her funeral inspired her to become a police officer.

Duncan appears again, pressing Peter to remember what distracted him on the day Evie died and urging him to search his memories. Peter recalls looking into a toy shop window that showed a railroad switch tower, a detail that will soon prove crucial. The following morning, he investigates the switch tower by the tracks and finds Barry, dead by suicide, hanging inside.

A rusty pin found at the switchhouse leads Barbara to a new clue: it bears Elizabeth’s high school insignia. Barbara visits William and learns that Elizabeth’s death was never clearly explained and that her presence on the night of the crash may be part of a larger truth William has tried to hide. As Barbara pushes to uncover the truth, Peter revisits the memory of the switch tower and remembers the night Earl of events in full: he had witnessed his father strangling Elizabeth, and in the struggle, Elizabeth pulled the lever, changing the tracks and causing the derailment. William then concealed Elizabeth’s body at the crash site.

Barbara presses William to reveal what really happened, but William knocks her unconscious and stuffs her into the trunk of her police car. Peter returns, confronts William, and learns that Elizabeth may not be his only victim. He presses William for the full truth, and William responds with a gun, knocking Peter unconscious as the tension reaches a fever pitch.

The next morning, William drives off with Peter and Barbara restrained in the car, a gun within reach on the passenger seat. But Elizabeth’s ghost appears in the road and in the car, startling William and causing him to lose control. Peter is catapulted from the back and lands at a safe distance with the gun. The car stalls on the train tracks as a train approaches. Barbara escapes the vehicle, and Peter helps by shooting out a window to free William. Yet William is overwhelmed by Elizabeth’s ghost and crushed by the oncoming train. On the track’s edge, Peter and Barbara watch as the victims’ spirits appear on the train, while the tranquil figure of Elizabeth departs with the others.

In the final moments, Peter stands on the beach with Evie’s ghost, who rises and walks into the ocean, finally moving on. Carol joins him, and they share a quiet, hopeful moment as he confesses that his thoughts now turn to children. The haunting chapter closes with a delicate sense of peace returning to a man who has faced the echoes of the past and learned to look toward a gentler future.

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 01:16