Return to the Dark Valley tells the stories of four immigrants united by their need to return to their place of origin & exact vengeance in some form. Manuela Beltrán, haunted by a troubled childhood she tries to escape through books & poetry; Tertuliano, an Argentine preacher who claims to be the Pope`s son, ready to resort to extreme methods to create a harmonious society; Ferdinand Palacios, a Colombian priest with a dark paramilitary past now confronted with his guilt; Juana & the consul, central characters in Gamboa`s Night Prayers, who are united in a relationship based equally on hurt & need. & Rimbaud, the precocious, brilliant poet whose life was incessant exploration. These characters animate Gamboa`s richly imagined portrait of a turbulent world where liberation is found in perpetual movement & determined exploration.