After being abandoned by her folk-dancing partner, Sharon Spiegelman follows her heart and pursues her own dreams.

This present darkness: When a reporter and a prayerful pastor begin to compare notes on the town of Ashton, they find themselves fighting a New Age plot to subjugate the townspeople, and eventually the entire human race. Piercing the darkness: A desperate young woman is fleeing to save her life and her soul from an evil and twisted darkness.

Imagine a world without poverty, hunger, or hatred, where a rich culture honors its diverse mix of races, religions, and heritages, and the Four Sacred Things that sustain all life -- earth, air, fire, and water -- are valued unconditionally. Now imagine the opposite: a nightmare world in which an authoritarian regime polices an apartheid state, access to food and water is restricted to those who obey the corrupt official religion, women are property...