In this novel of the mestizo, or mixed-blood, Frank Waters completes the Southwestern canvas begun in The Man Who Killed the Deer and People of the Valley. Set in a violent Mexican border town, the story centers on Barby, a tormented mestizo, Guadalupe, the mestiza “percentage-girl,” and Tai-Ling, the serene yogi. Their fates mingle though each remains alone—Barby bound to the brute rages of the night; Guadalupe unconscious of all save the sun of her sexuality; Tai-Ling believing it is possible to transcend completely the flow of life.

Frank Waters (1902–1995), one of the finest chroniclers of the American Southwest, wrote twenty–eight works of fiction and nonfiction.