The amulet: good-luck charm or curse? Sam is convinced he would already be dead without it.

Ross and Ruth have everything; children, and the Running R, a large cattle ranch located on the Flathead Indian Reservation of Montana, but there are problems. Ruth is tormented by secrets that threaten their idyllic life, and Indian Court decisions have angered tribal members and threaten the fragile peace between Indians and whites.

Colonel Wolard and a regiment of the 5th Cavalry remain missing as word of the Ghost Dance spreads like a prairie fire from one reservation to another.

In the Pasayten, hidden from time in the valley of the Sematuse, Bent Grass has a startling revelation giving her apocalyptic power to bring past, present and future together, but with alarming consequences.