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Plot Summary
Set on an Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) reservation in Minnesota, the novel is narrated by an unnamed 22-year-old mixed-blood Anishinaabe woman whose older sister, Belle, vanished from a bonfire roughly a year earlier. The narrator works at the hardware store to support her fractured family: her father sits motionless in his recliner, her mother attends rallies for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) while neglecting her younger children, and nine-year-old Prim and 12-year-old Bobo are largely left in the narrator's care. Most businesses have shuttered since a casino opened 14 years earlier, and Indigenous women keep disappearing without investigation. The narrator carries a secret guilt: She and Belle had a vicious fight at the bonfire, and her words drove Belle to leave alone.
A white man known only as John approaches the narrator at the hardware store; no one knows his real name, and his lack of a verifiable identity, combined with the complicated jurisdictional boundaries governing crimes on tribal land, allows him to avoid accountability. He moved onto the reservation 23 years ago and lives on allotment land, property stripped from the narrator's family during the federal Allotment Era of forced dispossession. Rumors say he kills rez dogs, stray dogs on the reservation, and hangs their bodies from a tree on his property. John nicknames the narrator "Pocahontas" when she refuses to give her name. Weeks later, he finds her with her siblings, follows them to the grocery store, grabs her wrist, and reveals he already knows her address. Rumors soon spread that they are romantically involved.
The narrator visits her 87-year-old grandmother, Nookomis, who reveals she has been planning her own funeral. Though her health has been stable, Nookomis is certain she will die soon after her late husband appeared to her in a dream with the news. She requests a traditional four-day Anishinaabe ceremony rather than a Christian service.
The narrator grows close to her coworkers, particularly Aandeg, an elderly man she considers a grandfather figure, and Casanova, the store owner's younger brother, for whom she develops unspoken feelings. She has already lost her ex-boyfriend Ajijaak, who owns the liquor store; after Belle's disappearance, she broke up with him by lying that she had cheated, destroying her own happiness as self-punishment. When she visits him, he tells her coldly that he is seeing someone else.
Through flashbacks, the narrator reveals the fight that haunts her. At the bonfire, Belle announced she was engaged to Eric, a white man from the nearby off-reservation town. The narrator exploded, hurling a racist, sexually degrading insult and screaming that she never wanted to see Belle again. Belle composed herself, said she hoped her sister would forgive her someday, and left alone. A cousin heard a pickup truck shortly afterward. The narrator told the tribal police about Eric but knew federal authorities would likely never investigate. She lied to her mother, claiming she had lost Belle at the fire, a deception that compounds her guilt throughout the novel.
At the pre-powwow bonfire, John reappears wearing store-bought moccasins. The narrator, drinking for the first time since Belle disappeared, feels a dangerous pull toward him. Mouse, one of Belle's friends, reveals that Belle met Eric at the casino where she worked. The narrator then spots Oldest Friend, her childhood companion, kissing Ajijaak, a betrayal neither had disclosed. She leaves with Casanova and confesses on the walk home that she fought with Belle that night, though she withholds the exact words.
At the powwow, the family Aunties publicly scold the narrator for her rumored relationship with John. Her argument with Oldest Friend erupts into a full breakup. Bobo, who now insists on being called by his given name, Bennett, delivers a note from John containing a handmade beaded strawberry brooch. Despite her fear, the narrator is moved by its beauty and begins pressing its pin into her skin, a form of self-soothing that escalates into deliberate self-harm.
The narrator investigates Eric. She visits the casino where Belle worked and learns Eric is from the town just off the reservation. She narrows her suspects to two men, eliminates one who has been in prison, and breaks into Eric Caelland's house, where she finds dozens of photographs of Belle and firearms cushioned with bleach-stained towels. Convinced Eric killed Belle, she flees.
The hardware store suffers a catastrophic flood, and the owner lays off half the staff. Aandeg is the last to be let go and dies shortly after. At his graveside, Baller, a close friend of Belle's, confirms she met Eric and that he made Belle happy. Meanwhile, a stray rez dog begins following the narrator home and eventually sleeps on Belle's old bed. Prim names the dog Pebbles, and the family gradually adopts her.
When the narrator takes Pebbles to the vet, she encounters Eric Caelland. He approaches her, saying she looks so much like Belle he thought he was seeing a ghost. He searched for Belle for months, but no one ever reported her case. The narrator sees genuine love and grief in his eyes and realizes he did not kill her sister.
Nookomis disappears into the woods, leaving a note that a dream told her to let her body rejoin the earth. Her body is never found. The narrator's father, citing his own spiritual dream, begins to emerge from his year-long withdrawal, apologizing and promising to be present again. Mother privately reveals she knew about Eric all along; Belle had introduced them and asked her to keep it secret, fearing the narrator's reaction.
On the day after Christmas, the police call. While searching for a missing white girl whose Amber alert dominated the news, officers found a woman's body. The parents return from the station with confirmation: Belle is dead. Bennett accuses the narrator, shouting that she told Belle not to come home. She runs to Casanova and kisses him, but he pulls away, saying he does not see a future between them. Sitting on a bridge over a frozen river, she encounters John's truck. Overcome with grief, she asks him to take her somewhere she can forget.
At John's farmhouse, he kisses her and begins pulling at her clothing. She spots a pair of handmade beaded women's moccasins inside a TV cabinet, moccasins no one would have parted with willingly. John's reaction confirms she is in mortal danger and that he has harmed other women before. He pins her down and begins to assault her. The thought of Prim losing another sister breaks through her resignation. She finds Bucky's antler-handled buck knife in her pocket, a family heirloom she took from her cousin's casket months earlier, and stabs John twice in the abdomen. She runs, but he catches her. Pebbles, wearing her red Christmas sweater, leaps onto him. The narrator retrieves the knife and stabs John in the throat.
Acquaintances find her on the road and drive her to the hospital, where she claims John fell on his own knife. Her mother arrives and shields her from police questioning, telling officers to return with a warrant. Former Friend texts a tentative apology, and the narrator responds in kind.
On New Year's Eve, Prim braids the narrator's hair, reversing their usual caretaker roles. The narrator pulls Belle's red dress from the clothesline, a memorial their mother hung after Belle's disappearance, and puts it on for the first time. Mother zips it up and wraps a red shawl around her shoulders. The narrator presses her paint-covered palm to her mouth, creating the red handprint of the MMIP movement. Looking at Pebbles through the window, she finally knows the dog's true name, though she does not speak it aloud. Mother and Prim each take one of her hands, and they walk together toward the house, leaving the narrator's old clothes behind. Belle's killer is never identified, and John dies as much a mystery as he lived.
A white man known only as John approaches the narrator at the hardware store; no one knows his real name, and his lack of a verifiable identity, combined with the complicated jurisdictional boundaries governing crimes on tribal land, allows him to avoid accountability. He moved onto the reservation 23 years ago and lives on allotment land, property stripped from the narrator's family during the federal Allotment Era of forced dispossession. Rumors say he kills rez dogs, stray dogs on the reservation, and hangs their bodies from a tree on his property. John nicknames the narrator "Pocahontas" when she refuses to give her name. Weeks later, he finds her with her siblings, follows them to the grocery store, grabs her wrist, and reveals he already knows her address. Rumors soon spread that they are romantically involved.
The narrator visits her 87-year-old grandmother, Nookomis, who reveals she has been planning her own funeral. Though her health has been stable, Nookomis is certain she will die soon after her late husband appeared to her in a dream with the news. She requests a traditional four-day Anishinaabe ceremony rather than a Christian service.
The narrator grows close to her coworkers, particularly Aandeg, an elderly man she considers a grandfather figure, and Casanova, the store owner's younger brother, for whom she develops unspoken feelings. She has already lost her ex-boyfriend Ajijaak, who owns the liquor store; after Belle's disappearance, she broke up with him by lying that she had cheated, destroying her own happiness as self-punishment. When she visits him, he tells her coldly that he is seeing someone else.
Through flashbacks, the narrator reveals the fight that haunts her. At the bonfire, Belle announced she was engaged to Eric, a white man from the nearby off-reservation town. The narrator exploded, hurling a racist, sexually degrading insult and screaming that she never wanted to see Belle again. Belle composed herself, said she hoped her sister would forgive her someday, and left alone. A cousin heard a pickup truck shortly afterward. The narrator told the tribal police about Eric but knew federal authorities would likely never investigate. She lied to her mother, claiming she had lost Belle at the fire, a deception that compounds her guilt throughout the novel.
At the pre-powwow bonfire, John reappears wearing store-bought moccasins. The narrator, drinking for the first time since Belle disappeared, feels a dangerous pull toward him. Mouse, one of Belle's friends, reveals that Belle met Eric at the casino where she worked. The narrator then spots Oldest Friend, her childhood companion, kissing Ajijaak, a betrayal neither had disclosed. She leaves with Casanova and confesses on the walk home that she fought with Belle that night, though she withholds the exact words.
At the powwow, the family Aunties publicly scold the narrator for her rumored relationship with John. Her argument with Oldest Friend erupts into a full breakup. Bobo, who now insists on being called by his given name, Bennett, delivers a note from John containing a handmade beaded strawberry brooch. Despite her fear, the narrator is moved by its beauty and begins pressing its pin into her skin, a form of self-soothing that escalates into deliberate self-harm.
The narrator investigates Eric. She visits the casino where Belle worked and learns Eric is from the town just off the reservation. She narrows her suspects to two men, eliminates one who has been in prison, and breaks into Eric Caelland's house, where she finds dozens of photographs of Belle and firearms cushioned with bleach-stained towels. Convinced Eric killed Belle, she flees.
The hardware store suffers a catastrophic flood, and the owner lays off half the staff. Aandeg is the last to be let go and dies shortly after. At his graveside, Baller, a close friend of Belle's, confirms she met Eric and that he made Belle happy. Meanwhile, a stray rez dog begins following the narrator home and eventually sleeps on Belle's old bed. Prim names the dog Pebbles, and the family gradually adopts her.
When the narrator takes Pebbles to the vet, she encounters Eric Caelland. He approaches her, saying she looks so much like Belle he thought he was seeing a ghost. He searched for Belle for months, but no one ever reported her case. The narrator sees genuine love and grief in his eyes and realizes he did not kill her sister.
Nookomis disappears into the woods, leaving a note that a dream told her to let her body rejoin the earth. Her body is never found. The narrator's father, citing his own spiritual dream, begins to emerge from his year-long withdrawal, apologizing and promising to be present again. Mother privately reveals she knew about Eric all along; Belle had introduced them and asked her to keep it secret, fearing the narrator's reaction.
On the day after Christmas, the police call. While searching for a missing white girl whose Amber alert dominated the news, officers found a woman's body. The parents return from the station with confirmation: Belle is dead. Bennett accuses the narrator, shouting that she told Belle not to come home. She runs to Casanova and kisses him, but he pulls away, saying he does not see a future between them. Sitting on a bridge over a frozen river, she encounters John's truck. Overcome with grief, she asks him to take her somewhere she can forget.
At John's farmhouse, he kisses her and begins pulling at her clothing. She spots a pair of handmade beaded women's moccasins inside a TV cabinet, moccasins no one would have parted with willingly. John's reaction confirms she is in mortal danger and that he has harmed other women before. He pins her down and begins to assault her. The thought of Prim losing another sister breaks through her resignation. She finds Bucky's antler-handled buck knife in her pocket, a family heirloom she took from her cousin's casket months earlier, and stabs John twice in the abdomen. She runs, but he catches her. Pebbles, wearing her red Christmas sweater, leaps onto him. The narrator retrieves the knife and stabs John in the throat.
Acquaintances find her on the road and drive her to the hospital, where she claims John fell on his own knife. Her mother arrives and shields her from police questioning, telling officers to return with a warrant. Former Friend texts a tentative apology, and the narrator responds in kind.
On New Year's Eve, Prim braids the narrator's hair, reversing their usual caretaker roles. The narrator pulls Belle's red dress from the clothesline, a memorial their mother hung after Belle's disappearance, and puts it on for the first time. Mother zips it up and wraps a red shawl around her shoulders. The narrator presses her paint-covered palm to her mouth, creating the red handprint of the MMIP movement. Looking at Pebbles through the window, she finally knows the dog's true name, though she does not speak it aloud. Mother and Prim each take one of her hands, and they walk together toward the house, leaving the narrator's old clothes behind. Belle's killer is never identified, and John dies as much a mystery as he lived.