In Arizona's Sonoran Desert, Jinich encounters Chinese chorizo, street poetry, Desert Noir music, ancient crops and a baseball team uniting Indigenous players from across the country. Together, these stories reveal a desert defined not by scarcity, but by abundance. 

Jinich journeys from Denver's jazz-filled Five Points neighborhood south into the New Mexico desert, following the Rio Grande from near its source. Along the way, she discovers music, farming, adobe building, faith and traditions that have endured for centuries.

Jinich enters the United States through Montana and Wyoming. On the Blackfeet Reservation, buffalo and a nearly lost language are returning. Farther south, women entrepreneurs and a community wool mill are rebuilding rural economies and demonstrating how one person's actions can strengthen an entire community.