Meet Finch, a corporate drone and blogger who invents words and imaginary lives, but none as surreal as the life he's about to lead as a decorative hermit. Meet Mr. Crane, an eccentric billionaire whose whims and moods change as often as the landscape outside his employee's cave. Join them both as they search for naturalistic serenity in a land of postmodern complexity.

Like Mr. Crane, who possesses the resources to build his own river, shape its path, and control its flow, Himmer carefully constructs a wondrous setting and creates a magical allegory that playfully explores the meaning of society, wealth, and the nature of work, and the limits of solitude in a networked world. Humor abounds as Finch, adjusting to a hermetic life, learns to paint poorly, play a reappearing flute, and contend with countless distractions, including his employer's topless wife, a meditative lion trained to befriend him, swarms of droning bees, and his employer's booming voice from speakers in the bramble