"A Stone for Amer" opens in the Swedish Cemetery of Rockford, Illinois, 1986. An elderly Will Lindstrom and daughter, Callie, primary characters in Szarke's first novel, "Delicate Armor"--search for Amer Lindstrom's grave. Will and his brother Ray were teenagers when their uncle left the family farm in Minnesota to stake a claim in Eastern Montana.

Through his letters, Amer assures everyone that his hard work is paying off. But in 1919, the family receives a telegram from the sheriff of Jordan, stating that Amer has been shot and killed. Will is sixteen when he and his father travel West to claim the body. Has Amer been murdered over a land dispute or targeted because he was gay?

Sixty-seven years later, desperate to find a marker for his uncle--symbolic proof that Amer Lindstrom mattered in this world--Will tells us his story: "A Stone for Amer."