Written with the precision of Cynthia Ozick and the blunt passion of Alice Munro, this riveting story takes place on a landscape—the deserts of Eastern Oregon—itself a deeply important character in this remarkable first novel.

Avery is no stranger to the weight of loss, the way it shapes and defines the expanse of a life. The death of her sister, when Avery was just a child herself, engulfed her and her family—a mother driven mad, a father who disappeared, and all the while, neighbors and friends ignoring and surviving. The loss shades Avery's full being, becoming a deep part of her past and her future.

As a young woman, Avery's life in Eastern Oregon ranch country is filled with an acquired family: her partner Davis Lovell, a ranch hand and father figure; Lennie, Lovell's daughter; and Davis's grandparents. When Avery suffers the loss of her and Davis's newborn child, it triggers and revives in her a familiar sense of guilt, one she has carried since childhood over the disintegration of her family.