Nanabush tries to convince a teenage Anishnawbe girl not to attend a Catholic residential school, then dives under the lake and disappears.

The girl arrives at the residential school and is forced to change her name to Lillian, forbidden from speaking her language.

A haggard Nanabush living in a flophouse as a beggar suddenly feels summoned across the distance, giving him new confidence and purpose.

Nanabush enters Lillian's bedroom on her deathbed; she recognizes him as her old lover and whispers two final requests in his ear.

Virgil watches through the bedroom window as the elderly Lillian and Nanabush share a passionate kiss before he leaves wordlessly.

Lillian dies and her funeral takes place; Nanabush watches from the road as her family gathers at the graveside.

Nanabush appears on his motorcycle to help Maggie change a flat tire, then gives her a ride to her brother's garage.

Nanabush enters a saloon where Maggie is drinking with friends and asks if he can cook a picnic supper for her the next night.

Nanabush and Maggie have sex at a secluded part of Otter Lake while Dakota watches from across the bay, feeling nausea and guilt.

Wayne and Virgil find Nanabush on a dock arguing fiercely with raccoons; Wayne recognizes him as a trickster demigod.

Nanabush breaks into a natural history museum after dark and steals prehistoric bones and artifacts to plant on the new tribal land.

A reporter finds a human bone protruding from the ground at Maggie's press conference; Nanabush appears on his motorcycle and whisks her away.

Nanabush confesses to stealing and planting museum bones on the new tribal land; Maggie kicks him and orders him off the Reserve.

Nanabush gives Virgil a ride home on his motorcycle and transforms from a blond white man into a black-haired Indigenous man.

An Anishnawbe man named Michael Mukwa sees an antique motorcycle riding atop the waters of Otter Lake on the day Nanabush departs.

Nanabush, the Anishnawbe trickster demigod, fails to prevent a teenage girl—the future Lillian—from choosing a Catholic residential school over her Indigenous world. Decades later, Lillian summons him on her deathbed and whispers two dying requests before they share a passionate final kiss. Nanabush then pursues Lillian's daughter Maggie, engineering a meeting by slashing her tire and gradually winning her trust with charm and mystery. After a romantic picnic leads to sex at the lake, Nanabush hatches a scheme to protect newly acquired tribal land by planting stolen museum bones and turning it into an archaeological site. His plan backfires spectacularly when reporters discover the bones at a press conference, and an enraged Maggie throws him off the Reserve. Nanabush departs transformed—revealing his true Indigenous face to Lillian's grandson Virgil before riding his motorcycle across the surface of Otter Lake.

The main plot of Nanabush's return and its consequences for the Otter Lake community.

Lillian finds her cousin Sammy isolated in the residential school's punishment shed, where he is secretly memorizing Shakespearean soliloquies.

Nanabush, living as a haggard beggar, spots a beautiful Indigenous woman entering a dry cleaner and calls out to her; she drives away.

The elderly Lillian tells her daughter Maggie that someone is about to bring magic into Maggie's life before Nanabush barges through the door.

Wayne, who has lived alone on an island for four years, decides after Lillian's death that it is finally time to return to civilization.

Nanabush breaks into the local Catholic Church at night and sits alone staring at a life-size icon of the crucified Jesus.

Virgil discovers new carvings on the flat rock by the railroad tracks depicting a man on a motorcycle and a woman heading west.

At supper, Virgil kicks Nanabush in the knee under the table, making him spill his coffee, while quietly grilling him about his intentions.

Maggie meets with Virgil's teacher, who warns that Virgil is dangerously close to failing eighth grade due to his constant absences.

Maggie arrives at Sammy's house for the picnic; Sammy throws a mushroom at her but softens when she mentions being Lillian's daughter.

Nanabush punches a large band member who insults his antique motorcycle at the local diner, knocking the man face-first into his eggs.

Wayne demonstrates his Indigenous-influenced martial arts system for Virgil, leaping onto the roof of Maggie's house as proof of his abilities.

Nanabush dreams of meeting Jesus in a forest glade, where the two deities compare their religions and their shared love for Lillian.

Nanabush finds his motorcycle covered in raccoon excrement and calls out to the raccoon chief to negotiate an end to their ancient feud.

Wayne and Virgil confront Nanabush outside Sammy's house; Wayne removes his shoes and attacks, and the two battle up into the treetops.

Wayne recuperates at Maggie's house, teaching Virgil and Dakota his martial art while Maggie decides to adopt a more relaxed approach to life.

While Nanabush's arrival drives the main plot, the lives of Otter Lake's residents are equally shaped by events happening at the margins. Lillian's cousin Sammy was permanently damaged by residential school abuse, surviving as an isolated man who translates Shakespeare into Anishnawbe iambic pentameter that no one can understand. Virgil's chronic truancy worries his teacher, who warns Maggie that her son is close to failing, while Maggie's own duties as chief keep her too distracted to truly help him. Wayne, a self-exiled martial arts master, slowly reintegrates into family life as Nanabush's presence stirs old memories and a sense of duty. Nanabush's smaller provocations—breaking into a church to stare at Jesus, picking a fight in the diner, and negotiating with a raccoon army over ancient grievances—create comedy and chaos around the Reserve's edges. By the novel's end, Wayne's teaching, Virgil's completed essay, and Maggie's lightened spirit signal quiet renewal for the Otter Lake community.

The secondary stories and smaller moments that enrich life on the Reserve.

A teenage Anishnawbe girl dives searching for a submerged Nanabush, then goes to the Catholic residential school the following day.

Sammy tells Lillian he plans to run away from the residential school, and the two cousins debate whether the school is worth enduring.

A lone rider approaches Otter Lake on an antique Indian Chief motorcycle, oddly familiar to every person and animal who sees him.

Virgil finds Nanabush sitting on his flat rock by the railroad tracks and is told that Lillian's two dying requests both involve Virgil.

Nanabush privately reveals to readers that he deliberately cut Maggie's tire to engineer their first meeting and earn her gratitude.

Virgil spots Nanabush dancing alone on a dock with a boombox at night and decides he must find his reclusive Uncle Wayne for help.

Virgil paddles across the lake to Wayne's island; Wayne grows interested when Virgil mentions the petroglyph and his mother's many Nanabush stories.

Dakota reveals that Nanabush found her asleep on the dock and talked with her at length about the stars; she has fallen in love.

Wayne tries to convince Maggie that John is Nanabush; they argue fiercely and Maggie shoves Wayne out of the house.

Maggie turns down Nanabush's impromptu lunch invitation; a petulant Nanabush drives to the city and seduces then immediately abandons the dry cleaner woman.

During a torrential thunderstorm, Nanabush stands at Lillian's grave and shelters a drenched chickadee inside his leather vest.

Dakota cuts school to find Nanabush on her own; Virgil chases after her with Wayne so the two can stage a confrontation with the demigod.

Virgil finds an exhausted Nanabush on the flat rock and learns the mysterious setting-sun petroglyph was just a joke about a nearby motel.

Nanabush rolls over the flat rock to reveal ancient petroglyphs he carved thousands of years earlier, then deflects Virgil's questions about their meaning.

Michael Mukwa spends seventeen years insisting he saw an antique motorcycle ride atop Otter Lake before dying with almost no one believing him.

Every major change in the novel hinges on a secret revealed or a decision made at a precise moment. Lillian's original choice to attend the residential school over staying with Nanabush sets the entire story in motion decades later. Virgil's discovery that Nanabush's two promises both involve him transforms the boy from bystander to reluctant but crucial participant. Wayne's reawakened connection to his mother's Nanabush stories compels him to leave his island and confront the demigod directly, reintegrating him into the family. Dakota's infatuation with Nanabush and Maggie's furious refusal to accept Wayne's warnings push all three women—and Nanabush—toward a shared crisis. Nanabush's honest confession to Virgil on the flat rock—that a mysterious petroglyph was just a motel joke, and that ancient carvings lie beneath—closes the loop between myth and everyday life. The novel ends with a sighting that almost no one believes, suggesting that Nanabush's truth endures long after his people stop looking for it.