Five hundred years before Columbus, the American Southwest was the homeland of the Anasazi civilization. Chaco Canyon was its heart. The reasons for the Anasazi's disappearance have long been a mystery. As told by the Rain Woman Bent Sparrow, the beginning of the end starts the day Panpele, flute player and wizard, arrives in the Canyon. Panpele rekindles his feud with his life-long enemy, Olin the Sun Watcher, Bent Sparrow's uncle. Using Bent Sparrow as his tool of revenge, Panpele casts illusions of love and honor that ultimately result in the collapse of an entire way of life.