Karin Schluter is awakend one night by a phone call informing her that her brother was severely injured in a one car accident along a lonely strech of Nebraska road. Karin rushes back home to help her brother Mark through his recovery from his injuries, which include a brain injury that ends up making him unable to recognize her as his sister. Karin sticks with him, fulfilling a childhood promise to always be there for her, though it costs her a lot. She has to stay in their hometown, a place she feels she has been trying to escape her whole life, and face the memories of her past. That includes a couple of old boyfriends, a disfunctial family, and the cranes that return to this part of Nebraska year after year. Meanwhile, a researcher on the brain, Dr. Weber, becomes involved with Mark and Karin after she to him asking for his advice. [return]The book leisurely and lyrically makes it way through season after season, often starting each section with vignettes of the cranes. There is a mystery behind Mark's accident, and the two other sets of tire tracks that were found there, that is only gradually revealed. Often as I was listening to this book I got a little impatient with it, but those that enjoy language and books that expound on the scenery would enjoy those parts more. It was interesting to learn some of the stuff about the way the brain functions, but it got a bit old after a while. Bernadette Dunne was the narrator, and she did an excelent job.