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Mathew Slains, a retired police officer, moves east from Wyoming after his wife and soulmate Sara loses her life in an automobile accident. He believes that by relocating he can start fresh, hoping to leave behind the anger he has pent-up inside towards God for letting death take his wife and for feeling guilty about not being there when she was killed. He finds some degree of solace in tending to the garden behind his house. Significantly, he is moved to leave a large circle barren in it. When he first lies down in that portion of the grass, though, his life changes forever. While there, he comes into contact with other people, including Sara, who guide him on his spiritual awakening throughout the book. He discovers that he is able, on various occasions, to observe himself in his previous lives. All of this at first seems improbable, and he wonders if he is losing his mind. As time goes by, he accepts that it is very real and not just in his imagination.
A young woman he meets invites Mathew to a party celebrating the French Revolution. At this get-together, the protagonist is introduced to a group of people from various walks of life and ethnicities. The Group (as they are called) meet up regularly, forming a strong bond and sharing their experiences as lives in a range of historical eras. Mathew becomes enamored with Marie, one member of the Group, who owns a bookstore and cafe. When Mathew has Marie over for a date, they travel through the color purple together to ancient South America and realize they had been in each other's lives before. Quite fond of each other, they strike up a sweet romance. She, along with the others, encourage him to capture his experiences by writing a book. The Group's relationships and interactions inspire the reader of this book with their seemingly natural process of discovering insight into that which Hays terms "ALL THAT IS." The purpose of their journey becomes apparent. It is to help others and "pay it forward." "We are all spirits having human experiences," writes Hays. "Not the other way around."
Without a doubt, Hays' novel could appeal greatly to a readership larger than just those who generally prefer spiritual fiction. Though religion and spirituality play a primary role in the storyline, this is also a story about relationships. Readers get to know—in addition to the main individuals who comprise the Group—a colorful collection of characters who populate the settings where Mathew enters his past incarnations. Some of these characters are real, while others are perhaps fictional. In Paris, he takes on the part of Pierre, who goes without eating for days, giving away food to the hungry during devastatingly harsh times in the late 1700s. During another trip back, Mathew encounters John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. Hays has done a remarkable job of interweaving storylines from the present-day (for example, when Mathew is new in town after his move east following Sara's tragic death) with those scenes straight out of different historical periods in varying places on the globe. One quite literally never knows what lies on the next page—nor the next chapter—in this creative novel marked by highly imaginative storytelling.