An American lawyer embarks on a Grail-like quest to rediscover the ancient human psyche he senses has been suppressed by the processes of civilization, his journey taking him first to the desert sands along the Rio Grande, then to the remote, rugged canyons of the Tarahumara, and finally to Jesusita, a barefoot Tarahumara goatherd who is loca. Nudging Lucas along on his path are a precocious eleven year old girl, a mentally-ill woman attached to a long rope, and a extraordinarily vibrant old witch-as well as the wandering spirit of an Aztec Earth Goddess. The desert, with its thorns and wild creatures and bright-starred night sky, teaches him: "How presumptuous of modern human beings to believe that their role in the world is in any way different from that of these javelina, that using symbolic language, and having constructed great cities, and what they call meaning, places them in another and higher plane of existence. Connecting deeply to the stars, or to people or to anything,...