Natalie and the valley's derelicts live in a wilderness paradise, but a gold mining company is about to savage a local mountain known as Jane's Hill. Can they stop it? Probably not. But Natalie -- a woman whose attitude was sizably influenced by the life and writings of Gertrude Stein -- continues to work on the problem as she throws "sedate salons" at her Joint, a two-story lodge of rough-hewn logs, and fishes the clear streams for brookies. She knows the mine will kill the river. That's why she finds a conflict in being nice to Parker, the six-foot-tall, sandy-haired mine manager. But then there's her unresolved relationship with Jack. Sarah, the shrink from Missoula, is always reminding her of those issues. And meanwhile Painter Bob is stirring up local folk, saying they should bomb the mine. My God, what if they did?