When philosophy scholar Celeste Sutherlin moves to the Northern California woods to finish her dissertation on Martin Heidegger, she does not find the quiet solitary life she expected. Instead, on a horseback ride with a young rancher, she discovers a dead body in a crashed car and is drawn into solving a twenty-year-old mystery.

The woman in the car is the daughter of Annie Farnsworth, a charismatic activist killed when a bomb went off in her car in 1990. The circumstances of the apparent accident make Celeste suspicious. Soon she is chasing down clues that suggest that the mother’s and daughter’s deaths are connected. Logging company skullduggery, a secret love affair at a nearby hippie commune, Mexican drug cartel involvement in the local marijuana industry–each may have played a role. Though Celeste’s investigation puts her in danger, she is compelled to delve deeper.

Is there more to heaven and earth than is dreamed of in Heidegger’s philosophy? Yes, Celeste comes to learn. But Heidegger’s concept of truth as the uncovering of what has been hidden, truth as Aletheia, is borne out by the novel’s dramatic conclusion.