Sleeping Child Lake follows two crucial weeks in the life of 32-year-old Bill Ryder, who since a divorce has been wandering as a day laborer in a diminishing West. When his boat nets a tropical fish off the Oregon coast, a chain of meaningful coincidences starts to unfold -- leading Ryder to western Montana and finally to nearly fathomless Sleeping Child Lake, sacred to American Indians who await a suffering redeemer who will begin the salvation of the Earth. With trepidation and hope, Ryder follows the turquoise lake's strengthening call and will meet Emma Little Bear and Charles Two Hats as he endures the end of an old life and the beginning of a new and richer one.