In the hopes of finding his missing son who, according to rumors, is alive and well living with a tribe of Native Americans, Don Pedro Garcia and his lieutenant, Ramon Cabeza, embark on a relentless quest across the Great Plains, unaware that the missing man is now a chief among the Elk-dog band.

The younger son of a legendary chief must make his own contribution to the People by learning the way of the buffalo from an ancient medicine man.

Snakewater, the oldest Cherokee in her village, serves as the tribal shaman until a young woman, grieving over the death of her infant, blames the elderly woman for the death, a case that is complicated when a warrior dies by his own knife in her hut and his brother mysteriously drowns, in the latest installment in the popular Spanish Bit saga.

Rabbit, the grandson of Heads Off, looses the sacred Spanish Bit of his people to the Blue Paints. He seeks to recover the Spanish Bit by riding against Walks-Like-Thunder, the Blue Paints chief.

Eagle must learn to survive after his horse spooks and leaves him hurt and stranded.