In a small Vermont town tucked between forest and farmland, Natalie Miller  and Carter Mears married the day they graduated from high school, believing love alone would sustain them. But as summer turns into fall the transient town quiets, in turn so does their relationship. Carter stays behind the diner counter while Natalie drifts through a period of isolation, her dreams of elsewhere dissolving.

The return of her childhood friend Lucy McKinley from a faraway place stirs something restless in her. Natalie begins to see how small she has allowed herself to become; strangled by her marriage. Over one incessant Thanksgiving break, between fights at the kitchen table and the warmth of a familiar face, she wrestles with the guilt of leaving the only world she’s ever known—and her husband, whom she no longer recognizes.

A tender, slow-burning portrait of young marriage, small-town stagnation, and the silent rebellion of choosing yourself, How The Axe Fell follows Natalie as she learns that letting go can be its own kind of love.