Faye Travers, a middle-aged divorcee and specialist in Native American antiquities, discovers a rare ceremonial drum while assessing the estate of a New Hampshire man descended from an Indian agent, and, when she hears the sound of the drum without even touching the instrument, she feels compelled to steal it and return it to a North Dakota reservation where its remarkable history is revealed.

A collection of three dozen short works includes six previously unpublished pieces and offers insight into the author's use of plot twists and contrasting psychological landscapes.

"One Sunday in the spring of 1988, a woman living on a reservation in North Dakota is attacked. The details of the crime are slow to surface because Geraldine Coutts is traumatized and reluctant to relive or reveal what happened, either to the police or to her husband, Bazil, and thirteen-year-old son, Joe. In one day, Joe's life is irrevocably transformed. He tries to heal his mother, but she will not leave her bed and slips into an abyss of solitude....