Exaltation of Larks - Tapa dura

It's 1978 and you're a college senior. You see a cigar-store Indian who then mystifyingly vanishes. You are seduced by the literal woman of your dreams, and a turtle assures you that you are an integral part of some secret cosmic plan from the end of time. You're not crazy. Your name is Jesse Aylesworth, and your life as a coed magnet and the editor of the college newspaper is about to spin drastically out of control....
It begins when an enigmatic woman named Sully appears out of the swirling snow one winter night and offers Jesse a ride. Then radios and televisions cease functioning. Peculiar events continue to occur with startling frequency. A change of cosmic proportions is coming - one that will both transform Jesse into an immortal, and remake our reality into a universe of eternal life.
The Indian, a member of a time-traveling race, has come to recruit candidates for the giant leap through time. Jesse is their only hope for both the future and the past, but before he agrees to aid them, he wants some answers.
Who is Sully? Is she manipulating Jesse only to sabotage the Indian's plan, or is she fantasy made flesh - a peasant maiden from the painted landscape of Jesse's dreams come true? Somehow, the fate of all time depends upon how Jesse answers these questions.