Dr. Will Romine leaves a successful academic career. Cynical, disillusioned, and unanchored he goes on the tramp as a gypsy medical generalist in the rural American West. For sixteen days in January Romine covers the clinic at the world’s largest cattle seed stock expo, the National Western Stock Show. He has a secret that gnaws at him. He wants to write a book, but struggles with “about what?” At the National Western he finds inspiration in a remarkable seed stock bull. It is owned by a reclusive billionaire. The disappearance of the Bull sets off speculation of “how” and “why.” Over the course of the book, Romine also struggles to find a meaningful sense-of-purpose that brings an element of order into the chaos of what has been his life. The book project serves as something that is unique and of his own creation. This doesn’t bring happiness, but it does pull him back from the abyss of negativity. He also likes being unanchored, because it allows him to pursue his curiosity and fascination about people, medicine and the American West. During his tenure at National Western. Dr. Romine deals with suffering and malevolence, but also encounters a series of complex westerners, including the billionaire with a big secret, the billionaire’s daughter who has more than a little attitude, a rodeo clown who fights bulls and demons, a first generation Vietnamese Denver police detective, a modern day stock detective in the form of a brand inspector, a nurse gothically inclined, a homeless man with a thing for cats, and a veterinarian who mentors Will—oh yes, there is also a wise dwarf.
