Before the outsider, now Chief Heads Off, brought the Elk Dog to The People their strategy had always been to flee or hide from their mortal enemies, the Head Splitters.

Singing Wolf, son of Elk-dog tribe leader Walks in the Sun, has reached manhood. He has proved himself on his first hunt and looks forward to marrying his childhood friend Rain. When a young warrior from another tribe arrives with a powerful magic, Singing Wolf realizes he has a rival for both tribal leadership and the affections of Rain.

An old Indian woman rescues a child with smallpox in one of the epidemics which decimated the Indians in the 18th Century. The child is the only survivor of another tribe and Running Deer's people warn her not to touch the girl. But Running Deer has no reason for living. Since her husband died she has been planning suicide. The child recovers and Running Deer finds a new reason to live--until the girl decides she wants to be reunited with her own...

To limit the influence of the French along the Mississippi River, the Spanish send out an expedition to capture Indians allied with the French. The result is a massacre by the Pawnee. A young Spanish captive is a slave at first, but later marries into the Pawnee tribe. This is the eighteenth novel in the popular Spanish Bit series that chronicles early contact between native Americans and white settlers and explorers.

The eleventh book in the Spanish Bit Saga in which French Sergeant Cartier joins an expedition down the Mississippi, but deserts below the mouth of the Missouri to travel overland in search of the People and his wife's family.

Walks in the Sun, a young Indian holy man of the People, is torn by a split among his friends and family.

The story of Beaver, a young member of the Elk-dog People, and his quet to understand the mystifying power of athe red pipestone.