Kate Blanchard woke up one morning in a dream home she could no longer afford, a young son who needed a man's influence and not a friend among those who had claimed to be prior to her husband's mysterious disappearance. About all she could lay claim to was a ramshackle ranch along Terlingua Creek, sitting forlornly in the desolate reaches of the lower Big Bend in Texas. It was the only place left she could go. There she finds a home, and a presence of something strange yet comforting that she can't fully put her finger on or understand. With that ethereal presence comes Solomon Zacatecas, a loner with his own past and a knowledge of her land near uncanny in nature. He helps her when no one else can and is honest when no one else will be, but she suspicions that he is not completely so. Yet her quiet, unassuming neighbor proves to be more than capable in whatever situation arises. That includes when standing alone against those who would take everything else that Kate had, including her life as well as her son's.