Ron Hansen's deeply affecting new novel opens in winter on the high plains of Colorado where rancher Atticus Cody receives an unexpected visit from his wayward young son. An artist and wanderer, Scott has recently settled into a life of heavy drinking and recklessness among expatriates and Mexicans in the little town of Resurreccion on the Caribbean coast. Weeks later, Atticus himself goes down to Mexico to recover the body of his son, thinking he has committed suicide. Puzzled by what he finds in Resurreccion, he begins to suspect that Scott has been murdered.

Atticus is the story of a father's fierce love for his son, a love so steadfast and powerful that it bends the impersonal forces of destiny to its own will. As Atticus uncovers the story of his son's death, fitting together the pieces of the mosaic that was Scott's life in Mexico--and encountering a group of disturbing characters along the way--he suffers a father's grief and rage, but is driven forward in his quest to understand by the even more powerful force of a father's love.