Pendulum is the tale of a family at a crossroads. In this novel, Charles Ellis and his wife, Sally, manage their old family ranch in the semi-arid region of western Nevada.

After Charles experiences a health scare, his brother, Sam, returns from living back east to help his aging brother, only to find that their smoothly run system is a fragile one and going through an age-induced change.

Since Charles' and Sally's two grown children, Dan and Robin, lead urban lives, they have little interest in taking over the ranch. This leaves the Ellis' in a quandary about the future of their ranch, as they are confronted by developers who want to acquire their land and develop it with roads, businesses, and housing, and in the process, destroy the ranch, the surrounding wilderness, and possibly their lives in the process.

The ranch and the surrounding desert landscape are formidable players in this novel. Unbeknownst to the Ellis family, their roots are so woven throughout the land that they could no more be pulled from it and live than an aged tree could if yanked up by its roots.

The title, Pendulum, refers to the old grandmother clock ferried over in covered wagon by the family's forebears; throughout the novel, the pendulum's oscillating arc offers a metaphor for the new and the renewal of life.