In Reagan-era Colorado, Forest Ranger Will Britt falls to a mysterious death, and his wife Noni is left with their new baby to defend their ranch and her dreams of a Wild West Peaceable Kingdom from a predatory US Senator, who wants to open the National Forest for coal development, and his local agent Petersen Tolstad, a neigbor and damaged Nam vet, who might have been a friend and now may be an enemy. In the modern literary western tradition of Normal MacLean, Thomas McGuane, and Louise Erdrich, Crossing the Divide asks: Who owns the West? And who owns love?