Jude Star escapes the Sand Creek Massacre and watches his grandmother Spotted Hawk get shot before fleeing with a young boy.

Jude and thirty-two other Indigenous people are transported by train to Fort Marion prison under Richard Henry Pratt's authority.

After an escape attempt by other prisoners, Jude and Bear Shield are chained, drugged by Pratt, and wake in the dungeons.

Jude is released from Fort Marion, chooses the name Jude from the Bible, and rides a train to an Oklahoma land allotment.

Jude meets Irish immigrant Hannah at a church in Oklahoma and eventually has a son named Charles with her.

When Tribal Police orders threaten Bear Shield's safety during a ceremony, Jude flees his home and family to protect him.

Charles Star is sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, where he endures years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.

Charles is shot while robbing the Piggly Wiggly grocery store in North Oakland as he tries to gather money to escape.

Opal Viola Bear Shield finds Charles dead in his shack and flees into the wilderness with his body and written pages.

Charles and Opal's daughter Victoria is born as Opal dies in childbirth, and Victoria is raised by the white Haven family.

Orvil Red Feather is struck by a stray bullet at the Big Oakland Powwow and rushed to the hospital.

Opal gives Orvil a guitar, and he begins playing while taking pain medication, gradually developing a substance use disorder.

After Lony runs away from home a third time, Orvil uses the last of his drug supply and overdoses.

Orvil enters a treatment program in the Sierra Nevada foothills, spends four years getting clean, and returns to Oakland to join a band.

After one of Orvil's shows, the family gathers for dinner and Opal shares a letter Lony wrote explaining his departure.

The narrative begins with Jude Star surviving the Sand Creek Massacre and being imprisoned at Fort Marion by Richard Henry Pratt, before building a family in Oklahoma that he ultimately abandons to protect his community. Jude's son Charles endures brutal abuse at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and dies in a botched grocery store robbery in Oakland, leaving behind writings that outlast him. His daughter Victoria is raised apart from her heritage by a white family, carrying a history she cannot fully access. In the contemporary story, Orvil Red Feather is shot at the Big Oakland Powwow and slides into a deepening substance use disorder while recovering from his wounds. After a near-fatal overdose, Orvil commits to sobriety and music, eventually returning to his family in Oakland. The pool closes with the family gathering after one of Orvil's shows to read a letter from Lony, who has been living away but now wants to come home.

The headline story of survival, violence, and recovery across five generations.

After the Sand Creek Massacre, Bear Shield rescues Jude and a young boy, then teaches Jude to build a drum and sing.

Jude accidentally discovers barrels of alcohol from a stolen wagon and begins drinking heavily, developing a substance use disorder.

Jude attends a peyote ceremony led by Bear Shield and prays for a son, despite once believing he had no future.

Richard Henry Pratt, in retirement, receives a letter from Charles Star requesting an interview for the book Charles is writing.

Pratt discovers Charles's body surrounded by blood and papers at the orchard shack, then dies of tuberculosis shortly after.

During a drunken night, Victoria's adoptive father reveals she is Indigenous American and hands her a box of Charles's things.

Victoria takes her daughters Opal and Jacquie to Alcatraz Island during the Indigenous occupation and tells them she is dying.

Before her death, Victoria archives Charles's writing at the Friendship Center in Oakland to preserve it for her daughters.

Orvil and Sean Price connect through an online school program and begin talking about their injuries and pain medications.

Opal and Jacquie walk together at Lake Merritt and Opal proposes that the whole family visit Alcatraz Island together.

Maxine, an old friend of Victoria's, gives Opal the box her mother preserved for her daughters at the Friendship Center.

The family gathers to watch Donnie Darko together, and Loother discovers cuts on Lony's arms during the evening.

The family adopts a dog Lony names Will; Will escapes when Orvil leaves the door open, and Lony goes missing searching for him.

Orvil attends a rave with Sean and hears a voice telling him he is an instrument and everything was left to him.

Lony begins running away from home and eventually rides a bus alone to the ocean, sleeping on the beach.

This pool traces the quieter but essential events that give shape to the family's experience, beginning with Bear Shield rescuing Jude after the massacre and teaching him the cultural knowledge that sustains him. Pratt's discovery of Charles's body and his own death from tuberculosis close the historical portion of the narrative, followed by the sequence through which Victoria receives and eventually preserves Charles's writings for her daughters. In the contemporary story, Orvil and Sean form an online bond that accelerates Orvil's addiction, while Opal quietly works to maintain the family's connection to each other and to their heritage. The family's emotional center comes into focus when Loother discovers Lony's self-harm, and when Lony begins slipping away toward the natural world on his own. Together these events show the many ways a family in crisis moves through grief, loyalty, and disconnection before slowly beginning to find their way back to one another.

The supporting moments that shape how each generation copes, connects, and survives.

Jude performs Indigenous songs and dances for white audiences at Fort Marion, feeling his identity dissolve into a spectacle.

Jude discovers that his Tribal Police role will require him to arrest Indigenous people who practice their own ceremonies.

Charles, intoxicated by laudanum, dreams vividly of riding a train to Washington and shooting the president, unable to distinguish the dream from reality.

On the day before his robbery, Charles writes about his father and his love for Opal, realizing he was always meant to write.

Victoria reads Charles's archived letters and papers for the first time, piecing together her hidden heritage and resolving to preserve them for her daughters.

A man named Harvey rapes Jacquie Red Feather while her family is living on Alcatraz Island during the Indigenous occupation.

Sean Price receives DNA test results revealing Indigenous and North African heritage but still feels he cannot claim any identity as his own.

Orvil tells Opal during one of their walks that he enjoys taking his pain medication and privately resists her belief he will stop.

Sean offers Orvil stronger, unlabeled pills made by his father in their basement, significantly accelerating Orvil's addiction.

Opal falls asleep on Sean's front porch while searching for Orvil; Orvil later sees the footage and is overwhelmed by guilt.

Opal is diagnosed with cancer and begins losing hope until reading Charles's writings teaches her that survival means coming back better made.

Lony climbs to the top of the Alcatraz water tower and asks Orvil whether this is what it takes for Orvil to notice how he is doing.

Orvil discovers a bag of crushed pills in Mike's car while driving Uber, then flees a rear-end accident with the drugs.

Orvil visits a library and reads the names of all California tribes aloud, feeling something fundamental shift in his sense of self.

Loother names his newborn daughter Opal, echoing generations of family history and quietly suggesting the possibility of generational healing.

This pool focuses on the decisive moments when characters encounter a truth or a crisis that forces a shift in who they are and how they live. Beginning with Jude's alienating performances for white audiences and his recognition that his police work will require him to betray his own people, the pool traces the slow fracturing of identity across generations. Charles's laudanum-induced breakdown and Victoria's late discovery of her own heritage show how trauma and erasure compound over time, while Jacquie's rape on Alcatraz marks a wound that shapes her for decades. In the contemporary story each character faces a moment of reckoning: Orvil's growing and hidden addiction, Opal's cancer diagnosis, Lony's desperate climb of the Alcatraz water tower, and Orvil's post-overdose awakening through music and land acknowledgment. The pool ends with Loother naming his daughter Opal, a small act that quietly suggests the family's long cycle of loss may be beginning to turn toward renewal.

The revelations and turning points that crack each character open and force them to change.