Pierre flies to Canada watching the Northern Lights, returning to his Anishinaabe homeland for the first time in centuries.

Keith reveals he has rented the family room to a stranger to help finances, forcing Tiffany to move to the basement.

Pierre arrives at the Hunter house and is welcomed by Granny Ruth, who is startled by how Indigenous he appears.

At a bush party, Tony repeatedly abandons Tiffany, and a girl named Julie arrives and kisses him on both cheeks.

Pierre stalks a man named James Jack across the reserve, barely restraining his vampiric hunger before retreating into hiding.

During a power outage, Keith finds Tiffany's progress report showing she is failing nearly every subject except art.

Tiffany's friends reveal that Julie has a gold bracelet identical to the one Tony supposedly bought for his mother.

Tony breaks up with Tiffany at a roadside diner, citing the difficulties of dating an Indigenous person.

Tiffany hurls a plate of fries through Tony's car window and rips the weekah root from around his neck.

Tiffany calls her mother Claudia, who reveals she is pregnant by her new partner; Tiffany hangs up in fury.

Keith and Tiffany fight about Claudia's departure; Tiffany walks into the woods with suicidal intentions and Keith cannot find her.

Pierre learns from Granny Ruth that Tiffany has been missing for twelve hours and immediately leaves to search for her.

Pierre finds Tiffany hiding in a treehouse, harshly berates her for self-pity, and she pushes him out and flees.

Pierre catches Tiffany at the lake, tells her the story of an Anishinaabe vampire, then grabs her and offers to kill her.

Pierre burns sage and tobacco at the lakeside and greets the fatal sunrise, ending his centuries-long life at his homeland.

Pierre L'Errant, an Anishinaabe vampire, flies to Canada to return to his homeland after centuries abroad. He rents a room from the struggling Hunter family, where sixteen-year-old Tiffany is already fighting to hold her life together after her mother's abandonment. As Pierre quietly battles his vampiric hunger across the reserve, Tiffany's relationship with her white boyfriend Tony collapses under the weight of his infidelity and casual racism. A phone call with her pregnant mother pushes Tiffany to her breaking point, and she flees into the woods with suicidal intentions. Pierre searches for her, and a brutal, honest confrontation at the lakeside forces Tiffany to choose life. Pierre then greets the sunrise, completing the circle of his centuries-long life at the place where it began.

The headline arc of a vampire's return home and a teenager's fight to survive.

An old Ojibwa man tells his grandchildren about two wolves fighting inside him, warning that the one you feed will win.

A fellow passenger named Irene Donovan asks to move seats away from Pierre, disturbed by his contagious emotionlessness and dark aura.

Pierre breaks two of a pickpocket's fingers at the Canadian airport after the man tries to steal his wallet.

Tiffany gives Tony weekah root in the school library to cure his persistent cough, and they soon begin dating.

Tony uses Tiffany's Indigenous status card repeatedly throughout their relationship, eventually buying both her a silver bracelet and Julie a gold one.

An old man named Moses grips his axe in fear as Pierre's unfamiliar Camry creeps slowly past his house at night.

Tiffany's cousin Trish is compelled by Pierre's voice to reveal Keith's address, then sits back down and forgets everything entirely.

Pierre crawls out through the basement window at night and hunts through the forest, remembering his childhood name of Owl.

Pierre's terrifying appearance near a nursing home causes an elderly stroke survivor named Rachel Stoney to die of a heart attack.

Keith and Pierre bond unexpectedly over shared childhood memories of pouring maple syrup on snow during an early morning encounter.

Keith relives the night Claudia walked into the living room, declared she no longer loved him, and left the family.

Two local bullies named Dale and Chucky confront Pierre at the bleachers; he terrifies them with glowing eyes and mysterious vanishings.

Pierre dumps Dale and Chucky naked on an island in the middle of the lake in a patch of poison ivy.

Tiffany gives Pierre the weekah root when he returns her home, hoping the traditional remedy will help heal him too.

Pierre whispers a private Anishinaabe message into sleeping Granny Ruth's ear before departing the Hunter home for the last time.

Before Pierre even reaches Otter Lake, his unsettling presence affects those around him, from a fellow passenger on the plane to a pickpocket at the airport. His arrival sends quiet shockwaves through the reserve community, disturbing an old man chopping wood and fatally frightening an elderly woman near the lake. Meanwhile, the backstory of Tiffany's relationship with Tony is sketched through small but telling moments involving the weekah root and her status card. Keith's grief over Claudia surfaces in a tender early-morning bonding scene with Pierre and in a painful flashback to the night she left. Two local troublemakers named Dale and Chucky provide dark comic relief when Pierre deposits them on an island, and the novel's final grace notes — Tiffany giving Pierre the weekah root and Pierre whispering to Granny Ruth — quietly close the story.

The supporting world of Otter Lake — secondary characters, backstory moments, and community ripples.

Tiffany reluctantly moves her belongings into the makeshift basement room and discovers it is crawling with spiders.

Tiffany stumbles into Pierre's sealed basement room and is startled to discover the strange tenant appears to be Indigenous.

Tiffany presses her ear against Pierre's carpeted basement room while bringing laundry down and hears no sounds of life inside.

Pierre startles Tiffany into the lake at the lakeside, then calmly gives her an arrowhead and identifies a dead pheasant by scent.

Tiffany sneaks out through her bedroom window while grounded to meet Tony; Pierre watches her go from a tall nearby tree.

Young Owl makes the fateful decision to leave his Anishinaabe home with French fur traders, eventually traveling all the way to France.

Pierre recalls his isolated years as a teenager in France, lonely and unable to return home, forced to perform his culture.

A creature with red eyes enters through Pierre's window as he lies dying of measles in France and transforms him into a vampire.

The newly transformed Pierre is overwhelmed by servant girl Anne's heartbeat and devours her, killing his only friend in France.

Tiffany calls Tony to confront him about Julie's matching bracelet; he dismisses her and claims he is simply at work.

Keith grounds Tiffany for six weeks over her failing grades and tells her he will not raise a lazy daughter.

Granny Ruth and Pierre discuss the wendigo over tea, and she tells him she senses he is never truly satisfied.

Pierre waits in a tree outside Tiffany's treehouse for hours, suppressing his bloodlust before he dares to climb down and approach.

Pierre carries the injured Tiffany back to the Hunter house and quietly tells her that her pain will eventually pass.

Tiffany cleans her wounds, returns to the living room, and gently kisses her sleeping grandmother on the cheek.

Pierre's identity as a vampire is slowly unveiled through a series of small, unsettling revelations — his room sealed in unnatural darkness, the absence of any sound of life within — before his backstory is exposed in full through painful flashbacks. The story of young Owl's decision to leave home with French fur traders, his lonely years in France, and his violent transformation into a vampire forms the emotional heart of his arc. For Tiffany, a series of quiet but decisive moments — sneaking out while grounded, a dismissive phone call with Tony, and a brutal fight with her father — push her steadily toward crisis. The wendigo conversation between Pierre and Granny Ruth reveals the spiritual weight Pierre carries. Ultimately, Pierre's long wait outside Tiffany's treehouse and his gentle carrying of her home mark the turning point at which both characters begin to heal, each through the other.

The hidden decisions, buried memories, and emotional revelations that shape both characters' fates.

Drew Hayden Taylor

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