Although only six years old, Antonio Marez is perceptive beyond his years. He was brought into the world with the help of Ultima, a curandera, or folk healer, in touch with nature and the spirit world. Revered by some as a wisewoman but rebuked by others as a witch, Ultima has now come back to stay with Tony's family. As Tony seeks out his destiny - torn between his mother's farming forebears and his father's wandering vaquero roots, between Spanish Catholicism and the gods of his indigenous ancestors - Ultima's loving tutelage will help him navigate questions of life and death, good and evil.