Discusses the history of ancient America, detailing the lives of hunters and gatherers, the move toward agriculture, and the rise and fall of civilizations, including the Inca, Maya, and Aztecs.

One hot Colorado afternoon, physician-turned-archaeologist Sarah MacLeish unearths the skeleton of an Ancestral Puebloan girl with a deformed leg. Her efforts to understand something of the long-ago life of that girl confront her with the flaws in her own body and her marriage. Sarah struggles with multiple sclerosis, and she is increasingly persuaded that her husband, archaeologist Harry MacLeish, is profoundly discontented in their childless marriage....