Two years ago, Guy Thornton was enjoying life on his ranch in southern Arizona with his growing family. Now, still reeling from the effects of a domestic tragedy, he's hit rock bottom in the northern Arizona town of Flagstaff. His Kaibab Paiute friend has had enough of Guy's drunken sorrow and violent outbursts, and jokingly suggests Guy "find a cliff" on the Kiabab Reservation.

Unfortunately, Guy takes the suggestion to heart. He sets off dressed as a beggar, hoping to get a free ride from a Mormon who mistakes him for a Nephite, described in the Book of Mormon as a member of The Lost Tribe of Israel. Meanwhile, Guy's eldest daughter, Sally—compelled by her mother's belief that she would be the one to find him—tracks her father through his former Arizona haunts.

During Guy's trip he stumbles upon an abandoned child and is befriended by an Elder of the church. Together they undertake the return of the girl to her family in the farthest northern section of the state, above the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, the setting of the novel's stunning conclusion.

Book Eight of The Arizona Series—novels intertwining Native American mythologies with western/adventure/romances set in the modern American West.