Trapped in the orbit of the buttes and a black obsidian Clovis, Hanna is sure there's nothing romantic about her hot and dusty job as an archeologist in the cultural and real desert. As she negotiates the misogyny of this no-woman's-land, she's on the move to evade physical and spiritual abuse at the hands of oil-field boys, and guard the damaged and angelic Paul. A vegetarian in a fast food wasteland, Hanna can't quite catch the wave of nothingness. Her clan of fellow archeologists tries to keep her from harm, but everything she truly needs lies outside the aegis of their reach.