"A bolt from an Aero México DC-8 falls from the sky, killing a Mexican girl and throwing the faith of a young American Jesuit into crisis. Jamey van Zandt's mother dies on his fifth birthday, sparking a lifetime of repressed anger that he only unlashes once a year when he recklessly duels the Fate, God, or Power who let the coincidence happen. A young woman, Risa McKeig, runs through the streets of Seattle searching for a "shooting star moment" that will pierce her world with a love that will eventually help heal both the Jesuit and the angry actor. The sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes hilarious journeys of this "unintentional menagerie" carry them to the healing lands of Montana's Elkmoon Beguine & Cattle Company, where nothing tastes better than four fingers of Maker's Mark mixed with glacier ice, nothing sounds lovelier than a lone flycatcher's mating song, and nothing seems less likely than the delight a bunch of urban sophisticates, Montana cowboys, road-weary musicians, and spiritual refugees begin to find in each other's company"-- Provided by publisher.