When an apocalyptic fire consumes Alex Mann’s hometown in New Mexico, his father and his best friend are both killed, leaving him with a harrowing secret about his role in their deaths. Scarred in mind and body, he embarks on a protean struggle to recreate himself. His journey is rife with embers of despair and guilt that reveal facets of a Mann he never knew. Memory, he discovers, can be both a mage and a sage whose sleight of hand unmoors time in the brine of imagination.

The refuge of an idyllic alpine town promises to heal Alex’s wounds and restore him through friendship until he himself ignites a scourge. Expelled and desperate, he is granted unforeseen absolution by an aging alcoholic with a savage past, who sets Alex on a course to reconciliation with himself that ultimately illumines his true calling.

Pivotal to Mann’s odyssey are the challenges and wisdom created by his relationships with desire, shame, forgiveness, and ultimately, the love of friends - above all, his extraordinary cat, Tiger, who salvages and reclaims him at the nadir. Mann’s friends relate interlocking stories of their personal encounters with the effects of global warming, addiction, child abuse, and gun violence as they seek to become at home in the world. The living and dead serve as a reckoning force, striving to lead Mann from the mire of blame to the grace of responsibility.