A gunshot rings out on a Las Vegas night, and Silas Quilter’s life is shattered. Falsely accused, forced to flee from the law and from relentless bounty hunters, his only hope lies with an unlikely source of succor: his grandmother Evangeline.
Together, they take to the American road in a Ford Maverick named Penelope. As they drive, Evangeline carries a special cargo: the ashes of a man she lost long ago. She tells Silas the story of their love, of his struggles that took him from the mud-drenched football fields of Pennsylvania to the hedgerows of war-torn Normandy, the marketplaces of Tunisia, and the vineyards of Peru. She tells Silas of his dying wish to have his ashes cast into a tornado.
Their journey takes them across the prairies and the deserts of western dream. Along the way, they’re joined by a young singer of ranchera music, blessed with beauty but cursed with private agonies and secrets. The three of them embark on a wild, wondrous – and unforgettable – quest into the soul of a continent and the caverns of the human heart.