When a dust storm engulfs her Colorado town and pink snow blankets the
streets, a heartbreaking decision faces Ruby Cole, a girl who counts
birds: She must abandon her baby or give in to her father, whom she
nicknames Lord God, and marry a man more than twice her age who already
has two wives. She chooses to run, which sets in motion an interlocking
series of actions and reactions, upending the lives of an equestrian
police officer, pawnshop riffraff, a disabled war vet, Nuisance Animal
destroyers, and a grieving ornithologist -- a field biologist studies
the decline of bird populations. All the while, a growing criminal
enterprise moves from cattle rustling to kidnapping to hijacking fuel
tankers and murder as events spin out of control.