Just a dot on the map of the northwest, Lumby looms big in the hearts of its residents. The townsfolk consider each other family as well as friends. And though the annual cow race can bring out the competitiveness in people, when times get tough, there is no better person to turn to than your nearest neighbor.

Lumby is thrown into the spotlight when one of the most important paintings of the twentieth century, The Barns of Lumby , is stolen. Town matriarch Charlotte Ross has a very personal connection to the painting-and to the artist, Dana Porter. And as a media frenzy descends on the little town, one of the actual barns disappears overnight from the rural landscape-and pieces of it begin showing up in the strangest places.