Set in California's remote Owens Valley, the novel continues the re-creation of life on a hardscrabble ranch in the early years of the century begun in the author's Ledoyt. It tells the story of Abel, a mute boy, and Mary Catherine, a young woman from an abusive background who is hired too teach him. Around these characters are others -- Abel's mournful mother, Oriana; his withdrawn brother, Fayette; his take-charge sister, Charlotte; and his one-armed cousin, Henry, with whom Mary Catherine falls in love -- all of whom come miraculously to life in Emshwiller's inspired telling of a story as rich as the Western landscape in which it is set.