Neva Greene is lying when she tells her new housemates that she's come to Coatepeque just for the adventure. The daughter of American Indian activists, Neva hasn't seen or heard from her parents since their disappearance twelve years earlier, when they helped plan an act of resistance that went terribly wrong. After discovering a long-overlooked clue to their disappearance, Neva follows their trail into a tiny Central American country, leaving behind an uncaring husband, an estranged brother, and a life of lukewarm commitments. In the capital city war is brewing. Amid escalating violence and political unrest, Neva finds work teaching English and takes a lover, Tomas. He, like her, is of mixed heritage and Neva begins to question her role in the government's war against Coatepeque's indigenous people. After she asks Tomas for help in tracking down her parents, he disappears and Neva falls apart. After a series of disastrous choices, she resolves to pursue her quest wherever it leads. Returning to the capital, she finds it ravaged by an earthquake and throws herself into the relief effort. Then her brother calls with news about their parents and urges her to come home. But the earthquake has made travel impossible and before she can leave war breaks out. Tomas returns and Neva is forced to come to terms with her past and confront her future. With finely drawn characters, emotional intensity, and a fresh writing style, Janet McAdams draws readers into a vivid and compelling tale of loss and possibility.