The Fisher King of the American West, Scott Crane, has been killed, and 14-year-old Koot Hoomie Parganas's perpetually bleeding wound makes him the most likely candidate for a supernatural successor. But the king's body has not yet begun to decay, and as long as there is a chance that he can be restored to the throne, his right-hand man, Archimedes Mavranos, is willing to risk all to revive Crane. But to do that he'll need the help of the woman who killed Crane, plus that of a recently widowed winemaker who has been touched by the god Dionysus, and the cooperation of Parganas's reluctant foster parents. Chances are they'll all die in the process, but unless Crane can be revived they'll probably all die anyway.