Vacancy is a multifaceted portrait of two towns in the Mojave Desert that are as much rural desert communities as they are states of mind. The towns that both claim the title of "Gateway to Death Valley"—Baker, California, and Beatty, Nevada—are tight-knit communities of people who remain settled where most merely pass through. Independent, hardy, and idiosyncratic, the people of these towns were ideal subjects for Pamela Littky to explore the heart of what seems like a big empty place, but what may reflect something important about the American experience today.