Nineteen years ago, a famous filmmaker disappeared from Los Angeles, taking his two children to a desolate corner of New Mexico. There he raised them in complete isolation, no television, computer, radio, or newspaper. Now, Dorothea, the man's twenty-three year old daughter, is leaving for the first time to search for her missing brother. In the outside world Dorothea meets Stephen Spaulding, a cab driver dealing with his own mysterious history. With him as her guide she uncovers the truth about her family's past and the events that drove her father to flee L.A.