What would you do if instant communication and computers no longer existed? What if there were no local, state, or federal governments? When was the last time you saw a tailor's shop? Or a boot repair shop? What if you couldn't go to the mall to purchase what you needed anymore? This is exactly what has happened in Talks with Horses. The hero, of his own choice, was already living in a remote valley training horses when the jihadists attacked the United States and left it in political and economic chaos. During the attacks, the heroine, a Native American woman spending time in a military brig, escapes and makes her way back to eastern Oklahoma - her original home. Because her tribe is one of the self-sufficient governments which has replaced the local and state government, she and the hero are both subject to the will of the Tribe That Lives by the Creek. Not knowing each other and having never met before, they are thrown together by the Chief of the Tribe and told to live and work together in the Valley of the Dead, thought to be an ancient burial ground. In the hero and heroine's situation, they make their living by taking young colts and training them into usable horses that will be further trained by others in the Tribe. In addition to furnishing horses for the Tribe, they are also responsible for hand-making cowboy boots and other equipment needed by horse people and members of the Tribe. This is complicated by people who lust for the valley because of its tales of lost treasure.