This gripping and darkly funny novel is about a family that has fled to Costa Rica (cloud forests, jungles, a failing flower farm), hoping to make a fresh start. It's about parents and children keeping secrets from each other, torn between the need to belong and the desire to be free. It takes place during the months leading up to the U.S. invasion of Panama in 1989.

As the family members struggle to find their place in this perilous sanctuary, forces of desire and nature and the backwash of international conflicts sweep over them all.

Ted finds the work of saving the flower farm complicated by criminal and political entanglements. Nine-year-old Stephen becomes best friends with the son of wealthy, horse-and-dog-raising, gun-owning, communist-hating expatriates. Monica falls in love with the enigmatic uncle of one of Stephen's Costa Rican classmates. Valerie, four, pursues her own blithely terrifying agenda.

This contemporary family drama, spiked with mystery and danger, is a vivid and powerfully emotional literary adventure.