While in a coma following an automobile accident that killed her parents and younger brother, seventeen-year-old Mia, a gifted cellist, ponders whether to live with her grief or join her family in death.

"Carol Evers is a woman with a dark secret. You see, every so often Carol descends into a death-like coma that she calls the Black Place. For two to four days her heartbeat slows way down, her breathing all but stops, and to the eyes of all she would appear dead as a doornail. Only two people know of her condition: her husband Dwight, and her former lover James Moxie--the most legendary outlaw the Trail has ever seen. Just before Carol can share her...