Powerful Saga of a New World Dynasty in Decline. Four centuries ago, the King of Spain granted the Alarcons a huge tract of land a few miles west of Taos, New Mexico, a personal fiefdom in the New World. Now Juan Mateo fears he may be the last of the House of Alarcon. His ranch in disuse, his wife Carmela withdrawn into a private world of sexual fantasy that skirts madness, his house empty of an heir, Juan Mateo watches the corporate land developers circle like vultures around his family's heritage. Then, one day, a young man arrives at the ranch by chance and Juan Mateo sees in him the son promised in a dream."