Kivuli Farley is an East African teen who has already suffered a tumultuous childhood when she arrives in America to meet the Roses who had been patrons and friends of her great-grandfather for four decades. Spirited and generous, Kivuli is anxious to learn more about her Maasai ancestor buried in Nevada before she was born. But the present journey proves to be as challenging as the past when she discovers a secret the old African had kept that led to a devastating tragedy for the Rose family.

What Kivuli desires above all is to find a way for those still wounded to heal and a path to redemption for two women worlds apart: an incarcerated child abductor, and the killer she knows best - her own mother. As she opens herself to the teachings of a Lakota Sioux horse master, the lesson in a provocative painting, the friendship of an adopted Indian boy with two dads, the surprising spiritual views of a South African Catholic priest, and ultimately a dangerous communication with the seemingly unredeemable kidnapper, the way becomes clear.

In a whirlwind tale of diverse cultures, faiths, and passions, victims and perpetrators draw inexorably together in a search for the meaning of forgiveness.