From the streets of Shanghai to the plains of Texas, a cast of characters fighting over land and identity must sift through the cracks between myth and truth, revealing relationships and plots hidden for most of a century. The key is in a strange, century-old map of the stars carried by a drifter traveling with a young bison named Bill who is more than he appears to be. In this fusion of legend and history, a narrator recalling his 12th birthday chronicles what followed the drifter's appearance-a series of events from opposite ends of the earth that evolved in extraordinary ways to shape his coming of age. They involve the mother he imagines as a Chinese princess-a widow struggling to protect her secrets; her powerful nemesis; an itinerant artist; an imposter priest; a beautiful woman wagered as the prize in a poker contest; a legendary eccentric with a reputation for killing and stuffing her victims; and a beer-guzzling bison whose racing prowess endangers his life, as he and the boy escape together on a final, desperate journey across the plains."