Based upon the author's own heritage, presents the story of an extended family of Basque-Americans in Nevada and a nameless narrator who seeks to learn about her immigrant grandfather and her ethnic roots.
Nevada sheep rancher Sabine Eckleberry struggles to put his life back together after his wife leaves him, his son tries to take over the ranch, and his daughter asks Sabine to find her a husband.
Sheep rancher Pete Lorda, his family, and his workers struggle to keep the ranch going when an epidemic of rabies, started when a rabid bat bit a roving coyote, infects the animals and people on the Carson City homestead.
A son writes of his father, an old Basque sheepherder who lived and worked in the American West for most of his life, and who, in fulfilling his dream of returning to the Pyrenees, came to a new realization of what America meant to him.
Thirteen-year-old Matt Echbar struggles to come of age amidst the confusion of his mother's death, his grandfather's illegal activities, and his father's disinterest in Matt's life.
