thriller... love story... sparks will fly. recently paroled, heroic but rootless, neal carver is traveling the western states on a vintage motorcycle, a legacy from another drifter -- his father. but neal carver's road trip goes spectacularly wrong when the bike is stolen by a murderous couple, and in his hellbent quest to regain it, he's struck by lightning while crossing the badlands. he recovers, more or less in one piece, but is now unexpectedly burdened with jed, an autistic boy who has a strange and magical connection to electricity. with the terrifying couple in pursuit, neal and jed arrive at the ranch of simone smith, a solitary young woman obsessed with completing a monumental piece of land art, work that is both keeping her alive and killing her. set against the vast landscape of new mexico and the thunderstorms of late summer, these three outsiders will unite for survival, and come to understand through the boy's perceptions how the unseen current that runs through the world has wired their lives together. in fleeing the violent past, the future may hold second chances, the finding of family, and the healing of wounds through the power of love.