Publisher's Synopsis
I'm Chief, Indian spirit guide. I see everything on the McSween ranch and saw it before it was a ranch or there was a McSween. Poor confused Ben Klein, is a McSween all right. The result of his mother's dalliance with Benny McSween while she was married to Karl Klein, Ben is trying to sort out his place in the family, if he has one. He is asking me for dreams about his ancestors. I'll send him dreams. In his dreams he sees the McSween brothers are ignorant white boys bringing their sheep into the Sacramento Mountains to start a ranch. They believe people can own land. I watch over this land and protect it. I keep the people from harm when possible. A difficult task. The brothers cultivate a taste for the carnal pleasures of women in the whorehouses in town. Finlay McSween loses his desire for chasing women when Beth comes into his life. Delighted when he gets her pregnant, he immediately marries her. He sets about ruining a perfectly good able-bodied woman by lighting the first fire of the morning and bringing in the wood and water. Finlay's younger brother, Rod, follows suit and helps with woman's work. His attraction for the foreman's daughter, Maria, satisfies his need for a woman, but not the bottle. Evil old Rosa, the foreman's wife, sends Maria to stay with relatives in Mexico, but she can't stop the unity of spirit Maria and Rod share. Although they are apart, they can feel, touch and taste each other in the darkness of night. I can tell you of the past, show you the present, but do not have the gift of seeing the future. From here on, we'll go watch together as it unfolds.
