Driving alone down a snowy Montana road at dawn, Marvin Deernose, a Native American carpenter and recovering drug addict, spots a car wreck. Inside, Senator Henry Neihart has suffered a stroke; the man Marvin rescues is now a husk of his former, commanding self. Within hours, Henry's granddaughter Justine gets a call and speeds to Henry, escaping Oregon, memories of her child killed in a car accident, and a crumbling marriage. Released from the hospital, Henry returns to his palatial home and, through Justine, extends an invitation in gratitude to Marvin. Justine and Marvin discover an immediate, irresistible attraction for one another, and a passionate affair ignites between these two disaffect souls. But just as Justine and Marvin's numbness to love and human acceptance begins to wear off, their affair has terrifying repercussions that neither is prepared for.

Capturing the wide expanses of the American West with his characteristic acute gaze and cool, spare prose, Kevin Canty has produced an extraordinary new novel -- a penetrating exploration of reckless love and loss -- that will enlarge his ever-growing and appreciative readership.