Home, for the Oak People, is a cave on the slopes of the Antelope Nose mountain. They live by hunting wild game and foraging for edible plants and fruits, but their way of life is under threat. The antelope and deer do not come in such numbers as they once did and hunger beckons. At a gathering on the plain at full moon, Ansa, a young woman from the desert, is mated with Bidari of the Oak People. After the feast, Ansa will come to live with him in the cave on the mountain. Will she be accepted by her new family, once they discover the fearful secret she carries? And who is the wild boy she discovers, living alone on the Nose of the Antelope? Despite everything that conspires against her, it seems that Ansa is destined to play an important role in the future of the Oak People. A future that is threatened not only by the vagaries of the natural world but by new, sinister dangers in human form.