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Against the enormous beauty of the American Midwest depicted in Henderson's third novel, people cast small but significant shadows while tending to families as fragile as fallen leaves. The hero of this century-spanning epic is a tough, restless woman, Augusta "Gussie" Locke. Born in 1903 in rural Minnesota to the beautiful Leota and the coarse, handsome trapper Brud Tornig, Gussie proves a disappointing curiosity to her parents: homely, solitary and given to running away. When Gussie catches her father with another woman, she and Leota flee the state, landing in Greeley, Colo., where Leota marries the wealthy Mr. Locke. On her first day as a Locke, the teenage Gussie once again runs off, escaping civilized life to the mountains of Wyoming. There, she finds work with the oil and mineral crews in the Great Divide Basin and cares for her daughter, Anne, conceived on the run from Greeley. Anne's own trajectory echoes Gussie's, and before long Gussie must face her mother's fate: abandoned by her only child. Saturated with details of the natural Midwest, Henderson's work etches in high relief the image of a solitary life among scenic riches. There is, however, an emotional wall around Henderson's protagonist, inviolable even by such studied prose; as a result, some characters remain elusive, like a beautiful, sun-faded portrait. (Apr.)