Set in New Mexico, Southern California and across the United States, this novel incorporates the music of the Grateful Dead…its magic, storytelling and roots.
Ex-con and Deadhead Devon Maxwell must come to terms with his humanity and pain, even as he encounters mystical experiences of becoming a free-flying raven and the realities of being a father to the daughter he does not get to see. When Cass, a beautiful teenager who longs to enter the larger world like her absent but worldly photojournalist father, is lured into defying her mother and joining the Grateful Dead scene by young Rowen, who avoids his own grief at his mother’s death by continually following the band, Devon befriends Cass and tries to protect her from being hurt by Rowen. Yet Cass is too naïve to see how damaged the older Deadhead is or the complexity of the younger man’s escape from emotion.
Meanwhile, Rowen’s grandmother tracks the mystery of an old quilt hanging on the wall of her remote New Mexico cabin with the help of her great-grandfather’s spirit. She wants the spirit to assist her grandson Rowen, while the spirit pushes her toward helping Devon, who is distant family, recognize the importance of ceremony in his search for his true self. As the Grateful Dead summer tour progresses, Cass becomes a key to helping Rowen process his grief and Devon find the ceremonial marker of his humanity before he can fly away.