Lost Mountain is the sequel to There Will Be a Highway There and begins with the death of World War II and Korean War veteran John Dean. His American warrior blood lives on with the remaining members of the Dean family who forge a cohesive family unit on their Appalachian farm but the mountain is changing. Neighbors sell out their land to developers who begin carving up lots for sale with "a hundred mile view." Strangers with different ideas and customs invade the tranquil mountain way of life. Young Sass idolizes his fiddle playing Uncle Ben who discovers the boy is a musical phenomenon in their idyllic isolated world of no television. Ben's friend, Roosevelt Dutrow, the obnoxious King of Bluegrass Music recruits them to play in his band and Sass Dean discovers the back door world of the Bluegrass Music Festival circuit. Retired Marine Drill Instructor and sniper Charlton Weist moves back to his ancestral home at the Low Place with his German Shepard "Chesty." He befriends the Dean family and teaches Sass the art of shooting with a rifle. Meanwhile, a cancer invades the peaceful mountain community. Old friend Aziz Mousallah gets in a financial and personal predicament and is recruited through blackmail and intimidation to assist a terrorist cell planning an attack on the town of Cambridge in conjunction with the events of 9/11/2001. Conflicts arise and there are dangerous confrontations between the Deans and the foreigners that come to a violent head on that fateful day.