Leslie Flynn, a widow who moves from New England to rural Nevada after her husband dies, has a mystical experience through which she is given three mandates by God, setting into motion a series of events that plummet her into the worlds of the Native American casino industry, a hi-tech business magnate, and the Vatican hierarchy. 

Leslie’s experience begins when her duties as a travel writer take her to Bishop, California, to visit the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Trees, the oldest living things on Earth. She is drawn to the Matriarch, the largest of the Bristlecones alive today, although not the oldest.  As she approaches the tree, she is aware that she is on holy ground. She is drawn into the tree where she traces her entire matriarchal lineage from the United States, through Eastern Europe, to Russia, Alaska and eventually to Nevada where her ancestors are Paiute Indians.  She is drawn into the lives of several of her female ancestors who share many traits with Leslie. She witnesses the strength and power of her ancestors and develops a great appreciation for the gifts she has received from each of them.

She eventually finds herself beyond human history, witnessing creation itself. In this moment, she is given three mandates from God—Honor and Protect My Creation; Celebrate the Diversity I Birthed from My Womb; and Return My Church to the Mystics and Prophets. 

Returning to her ranch in northern Nevada, she is mystified as to why these mandates have come to her and how she can possibly fulfill them. Her deep love for nature leads her to tackle the “creation” mandate first and she conceives a simple but brilliant plan to involve Native American casino owners in the quest to raise money to fund environmental groups that preserve and protect the Earth. She visits a casino in New England to enlist the help of Joseph Runningwater, the casino manager and a respected leader among Native Americans and in the casino industry. Joseph is enthralled with Leslie and is eager to get involved with her project, partly to develop a closer relationship with Leslie and partly because he believes in her cause. Leslie finds herself drawn between two suitors, an old family friend, Fred Simms, now divorced, and Joseph Runningwater.  But she is far too busy thinking about how she is going to fulfill her mission from God to become romantically involved with either man right now.

After much planning and hard work on Leslie’s part, and with the help of others, the casino plan is successful. Even before this mandate’s completion, she is approached by a leading software manufacturer, one of the wealthiest men in the country, who has heard about Leslie’s work on behalf of the environment and who enlists her help to implement a concept of his.  Tom Barton’s call leads her into the fulfillment of her second mandate to Recognize and Celebrate Diversity.  Tom Barton and his life partner, Brett Henderson, have wanted to do something to encourage the acceptance of diverse cultures and lifestyles for some time but were not sure how to implement their dream.  With Leslie’s help, Barton launches a project to build Peace Schools, where young people can learn acceptance of diverse cultures and lifestyles at an early age. He also involves leading members of the entertainment industry in developing movies, television shows and video games with a diversity theme.  Leslie brings her childhood friend, Sara, into both these projects as well as several people from Joseph’s casino, starting an unexpected romantic involvement between Sara and one of Joseph’s leading staff people, Stephanie.  

Once the planning of these two projects is well under way, Leslie knows she must talk with her brother, George Castle, a Cardinal in Rome, about the final mandate. At the same time, in the back of Leslie’s mind, is the great wealth of the Catholic Church, which might be diverted into some of these important projects.  She is still baffled by how she, a female, could do anything about changing the hierarchy of the Church, but she feels that George will be the source of helping her with this third mandate. And after all, George was the right-hand man of the newly elected Pope John XXIV. George is involved in heading up the Church’s third Vatican Council, in an effort to revitalize the church.

As Leslie begins to share her experiences with her brother, she finds out that George and the Pope are being challenged by the Pope’s archrival, Cardinal Ferranti, who is trying to overthrow the Pope and have himself appointed Pope. George Castle wants to work with Leslie to try to fulfill her mandates from God, but he is facing a crisis that could change the Church he knows and loves by reverting it back to a Pre Vatican II mentality.  Ferranti, he realizes, is a dangerous man, who will stop at nothing to defeat John XXIV.  George enlists a team of sympathetic and powerful Cardinals to help stop the threat of Ferranti’s plot.

Once this crisis is resolved, George then asks Leslie to tell him the full story of her experience at the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. He introduces her to the Pope and together they begin to plan a revolutionary breakthrough for the Church which will involve Leslie in a direction she had not ever imagined, even in her wildest dreams. 

Leslie is, in the end, instrumental in fulfilling all three of her mandates from God, but realizes her work is just beginning.

Join Leslie’s adventure; pick up my book, The Matriarch