Two men, each unaware of the other, share a common family secret: they were sold for adoption by their American father shortly after their births in the Philippines. Their alternating stories interweave with his, as the two separately attempt to piece together the puzzle of their past. Named after the region of the moon where Apollo 16 landed in the same year the two boys were born of separate mothers, The Descartes Highlands demonstrates that for lives marked by unrelieved loneliness, the only hope lies in the redemptive power of love.