Narrative of the discovery and inhabiting of the author's homestead along Wyoming's North Platte River. Memoirs from the author's youth and family life, relatives, their cultures and their mobility. Her youth across New England. Historical, archaeological, and genealogical portraits of her family, her various regions, and their people woven throughout. Vivid descriptions of natural life in the rural United States that add to several chapters on the processes of architecting, building, and getting acquainted with her Wyoming home - Bird Cloud - and its own histories. From the author of "The Shipping News," "Accordion Crimes," and several other notable works of fiction.