The second book in the Ray Series, Working for Ray takes up the story of the man from In Light of Ray who has lost or thrown away everything in his search for a meaningful life. Only gradually does he begin to realize that he'd been looking in the wrong places for the wrong answers.

Adopting a child should be fairly straightforward, but Sam takes a girl from Wreck Beach in Vancouver where her mother has abandoned her, and their relationship is complicated by his circumstances and her need. Sam is homeless and possibly suicidal and the girl is traumatized by her abandonment and feelings of loss. As they travel together, her fears and anxiety combine with his own feelings of disconnection in ways that both strengthen and threaten their growing bond.

This fraught relationship is further tangled by Ray's almost clairvoyant intuition. From a distance, Ray seems to be orchestrating their relationship and interfering in their future. Sam is torn between the claustrophobia of Ray's strangely perceptive concern and his wish to make a future from the vague remnants of his own childhood.

For his daughter's sake, Sam struggles to be the stable one in the relationship, but his own problems are difficult to define. As they try to work through their past on a cross-Canada trip, it becomes less obvious who is healthy, and finally, as need turns to love and Ray's influence weakens, what health might mean to people who only have each other.