Chronicles the childhood of Minnesota Anishinaabe elder Maude Kegg of the Mille Lacs Reservation, and explores the traditional Anishinaabe culture as they came into contact with Euro-American settlers in the early decades of the twentieth century.

When Billy and his dad are injured, Tom summons the courage to get back on the water. This time, he must travel in a rickety old homemade canoe through the Alaska wilderness to get help. But it's not just the canoe and the terrain he has to worry about--he's surrounded by dangerous adversaries. Are his skills enough to fight them off or will his journey be cut short and Billy and his father left stranded?