The story starts with the unexpected end to a career, during a downturn in the economy. Without an income, the urbanite couple abandons their former life and finds the only property they could afford, in a remote mountainous area of Northern California outside the remnants of a tiny Gold Rush town. It's an area populated by rugged people. With only an abandoned shack for shelter the couple find themselves struggling to survive, theirs trials played out in the middle of a community they couldn't have imagined. Initially overwhelmed, they learn how to build a house, repair old cars, drill for water, fix water pumps, clear land, bulldozers, burn piles, horses, scary steep driveways, chainsaws, rattlesnakes, vermin, gun-toting neighbors, baby deer, good folks and bad folks, bears and lions, wilderness, fires, wildfires, mountain life, summer heat and winter freezes, and finally find redemption. Not just with themselves, but also the rural community of Igo, its surprising assortment of people and its very different culture. This is an adventure story set later in life, but most of all, it's a celebration of life.