Grand Avenue, a street in the center of the northern California town of Santa Rosa where "everybody's connected to everybody," is home not only to Pomo Indians making a life outside of the reservation but also to Mexicans, blacks, and some Portuguese, all trying to find their way among the many obstacles in their turbulent world.

Bound together by a lone ancestor, the lives of the Native Americans from the core of these stories - tales full of cures, poison, family healing rituals, and a kind of humor that allows the inhabitants of Grand Avenue to see their own foibles with a saving grace.

A teenage girl falls in love with a crippled horse marked for slaughter . . . an aging healer summons his strength for one final song . . . a father seeks a bond with his illegitimate son . . . a mother searches for the power to care for her cancer-stricken daughter's spirit. Here is a tapestry of lives rendered with the color, wisdom, and quest for meaning of the traditional tale-telling in which they are rooted.

Vibrant with the emotions and realities of a changing world, these stories are all equally stunning and from the heart.