A story from the hidden heart of Africa, blending social realism with fantasy, crime, and intrigue, it deals essentially with the apparently irreconcilable disparities between different cultures. Elia of the Baktari, a central African tribe, is torn between her duty as the high chief's daughter and queen designate of the tribe and her career as a western geologist, working at a mine not far from her village which contains a priceless meteoric mineral called borlanium. 

Author: Jill Morsbach