After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral eleven-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's disturbed father, Jeremiah. Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times.

After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished 11-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face-to-face with the boy's profoundly disturbed father, and becomes embroiled in a massive manhunt from which no one will emerge unscathed. This shattering and iconic novel brilliantly depicts America's disquieting and violent contradictions.