In 1964 Elizabeth Leigh, aspiring artist, is looking forward to college, escape from her unhappy home, and the fulfillment of her dreams. Adventure. Love. Her place in the sun. On a restless afternoon, she leaves school early and discovers her mother is packing to run off with a lover, abandoning Elizabeth and her stepfather. Worse, she learns her mother has squandered the college money her grandfather left her. A fortuitous invitation from her cousin Melina to come to Los Angeles rescues her from an uncertain future. In Los Angeles, Elizabeth finds security in the embrace of her aunt's family and is introduced to the man who soon becomes her fiance, Collin Greenslade, an ambitious, up-and-coming real estate developer. Life could not be more perfect. When her cousin's boyfriend, a civil rights activist, has his Thunderbird vandalized in Mississippi, he enlists his roommate, Mark Laughing Hawk, to tow his car back home. Melina insists that she and Elizabeth should come along for the ride, but what starts as a fun romp across the country becomes a journey of the soul that complicates love and endangers lives. Elizabeth must choose between two men and two divergent paths in life. Dreaming of Laughing Hawk explores the desire for love, power, and sense of purpose and the lengths we will go to attain them. It features complex characters; a unique, suspenseful love story; and a touch of magic realism when Elizabeth's dreams and intuition begin to clash with her best laid plans."