Daunis Fontaine was born to a mixed family. Her mother was French and Italian, and her father was Native American. She grew up, however, on a Native American tradition with a Native American father who was a firekeeper.
Before the events of the novel, Daunis' father died when she was seven. Several months before the events of the novel, Daunis' uncle and grandmother have died. Not only that, but Daunis’ mother is also sick with grief over the death of her brother and mother. Thus, she defers her enrollment for the University of Michigan and stays on the reservation to care for her mother.
At the start of the novel, Daunis' friend, Lily, is struggling tremendously with drugs. Not only that, but Daunis’ tribe is also struggling with political infighting and protests. The death of Daunis' uncle, which seemed cut-and-dry, is also being reexamined because he may have died because of drugs. Daunis' life, in other words, is incredibly complicated.
One dark and solemn night, Lily's boyfriend kills her and then the gun turns on himself and kills himself. Daunis eventually finds out that another man named Jamie that she was speaking with in the community was an undercover cop who was investigating a methamphetamine ring in Daunis' community.
As it turns out, Daunis' uncle died because he was the confidential informant in the community investigating the meth ring. After Daunis' uncle's death, she is approached by Jamie to be the confidential informant for the FBI. At first, Daunis refuses to accept the offer. Eventually, though, she accepts the offer and becomes the confidential informant for the FBI.
Over time, she learns what the FBI knows about the case. The FBI, for instance, thinks that the person in the community making the meth are well-versed in traditional medicine, a subject which Daunis knows quite a bit about (she also knows quite a bit about science, being a scientist herself). The FBI's investigation continues, but Daunis has a hard time moving forward with her role as a confidential informant. Above all, Jamie and Daunis begin to date each other and start to develop real feelings for each other.
Daunis' two friends and teammates die from meth. After their deaths, Daunis discovers that the person making the meth added hallucinogenic mushrooms. Eventually, Daunis discovers that her family and several people from the local hockey team (including many high-class people) were making the meth and distributing it in the community. Daunis is deeply hurt by her brother's betrayal, but by the end of the novel receives a clear vision for what her will be like (as it turns out, she will attend the University of Hawaii to study ethnobotany and traditional medicine).
