From an isolated mountain cabin, Deanna Wolfe, a reclusive wildlife biologist, watches a den of coyotes that have recently migrated into the region. She is caught off-guard by a young hunter who invades her most private spaces and confounds her self-assured, solitary life. On a farm several miles down the mountain, Lusa Maluf Landowski finds herself unexpectedly marooned in a strange place where she must declare or lose her attachment to the land that has become her own.
A few more miles down the road, a pair of elderly, feuding neighbours tend their respective farms and wrangle about God, pesticides, and the possibilities of a future neither of them expected.
Over the course of one humid summer, these characters find their connections to one another and to the flora and fauna with whom they share a place. 'Prodigal Summer' embraces pure thematic originality and demonstrates a balance of narrative, drama and ideas that render it an inspiring work of fiction.