Drawing from the legendary heroic life of Bill Keys, this classic story of the Old and New West uniquely captures the romance and tragedy of the American West. Cowboy, prospector and miner, living with the Walapai Indians, 'desert rat', partner of Death Valley Scotty, rancher in the high Mohave desert, Keys knew Buffalo Bill, the Parker brothers, General Patton, and did a five-year stretch in San Quentin for his eighth range-war shooting.

Through the voices of Will Spear (based on Bill Keys) and Lily, a 1960s California girl, Cabot sees people in depth and time as souls alive in the wandering generations, the waves of migration, settlement, conquest, and loss, as characters caught in the larger cycles of nature. The voice that imparts the ground tone is the meditative voice of the Joshua Tree itself, singing out of the profound depths of nature, standing as witness to the living creatures of the desert.