Ballad of a Very Long Year is a story told in three parts. The second part focuses upon a man named Mason.

Mason is essentially well-meaning, though perhaps a bit unstable. The crush of events Mason endures during the Ballad's first act drive him to the end of his ragged rope. With all hope and reason to endure seemingly lost, he snaps. Book I concludes with a consuming fit of melodrama (though few take notice), as Mason declares his intent to check himself out of society.

The Meet Your Maker album is a one-man play representing Book II of the Ballad. Mason has exiled himself to Cairo, Egypt. In a delusional state one evening, he charters transportation to the Western Desert (in the direction of the Libyan border). He vows to make a deadly trek to the center of the Great Sand Sea on foot. Once there, he will allow the elements to do him in. Mason will leave only his ever-present journal and sun-bleached bones to the world.

Gradually, circumstances prompt a dose of harsh reality and a tenuous return to clarity. Mason finally realizes the senselessness and ill logic of his actions. Unfortunately, it is too late; he is beyond all natural means of aid.

Mason has no choice but to accept his sorry and self-imposed fate, and prepares to meet the end he has earned. Other forces are at work, however. Mason is delivered, as if by a miracle: there is rainfall at the heart of the Great Sand Sea. Still near death, he is discovered by Bedouins and delivered to their camp for care. The future is uncertain, but Mason will live to see another day ...

"... and for today, that is enough."