Perry crashes her car into a gate, and Aunt Daunis pays for repairs and enrolls Perry in a summer internship to repay the debt.

Cooper takes Perry to Mackinac State College, where she encounters Warrior Girl's remains among 13 tribal ancestors held by the anthropology department.

Perry slips unmarked heirloom pumpkin seeds into her pocket while opening boxes in Dr. Fenton's office at Mackinac.

Cooper asks Perry to help him repatriate Warrior Girl from Mackinac State College, and she agrees.

During a visit to Lockhart's tourist shop, Perry steals her great-grandmother's black ash basket amid the commotion of a broken display case.

Cooper fires Perry from her museum internship after she admits she stole the pumpkin seeds from Fenton's office.

Perry begins her second internship assignment under Subchief Tom Webster, who calls her 'Ogichidaakwezans,' meaning warrior girl.

Lockhart publicly donates his entire collection to Mackinac State College instead of the Tribe, citing a personal grudge against Edwards.

Perry trips over Grant Edwards's stabbed body in an empty hallway of the college building after chasing Lockhart.

Anishinaabe women stand one by one in court claiming they killed Edwards; Mr. Bailey then confesses and is arrested instead.

Perry secretly investigates Lockhart's silo and discovers 42 ancestors arranged in wired shadow boxes surrounding a swiveling viewing chair.

Perry finds Shense's car wrecked at the bottom of an embankment with no sign of Shense, confirming she is missing.

Team Heist Misfits removes the ancestors from Lockhart's silo, but the moving van disappears and Perry is left behind and knocked unconscious.

Perry wakes in an underground hole with Shense and the bodies of other missing women, including Razz's corpse.

Perry and Shense are rescued by their families, and the community later holds a recommitment ceremony to honor their recovered ancestors.

Perry is forced into a summer internship after crashing her car, where she discovers that Mackinac State College holds her tribe's ancestral remains and agrees to help her mentor repatriate Warrior Girl. She begins taking matters into her own hands by stealing cultural items, which gets her fired and reassigned to a new mentor. After Lockhart's shocking betrayal at his public announcement and the discovery of Edwards's body, the community is thrown into chaos. Perry uncovers a private silo holding 42 ancestors and assembles a team to recover them in a dangerous heist. The mission goes catastrophically wrong, leaving Perry kidnapped and trapped underground with Shense and the bodies of other missing women. She is ultimately rescued, and the community gathers to hold a healing ceremony welcoming their ancestors home.

The main events driving Perry's fight to reclaim her ancestors.

Perry spots a black ash basket woven by her great-grandmother on display inside the Tribe's Cultural Learning Center museum.

Team Misfit Toys wins the monkey bars challenge at the first Friday internship seminar using trapeze-style teamwork with Perry and Lucas.

Perry plants the stolen pumpkin seeds in her father's greenhouse garden, secretly beginning their cultivation.

Pauline is reassigned away from Chief Manitou's internship after Daunis catches them alone together and delivers veiled threats.

Chief Manitou derails Cooper's NAGPRA presentation by having his cousin Rocky perform an exhibition hoop dance for the Mackinac visitors.

Police confirm that the body of missing woman Darby O'Malley has been found, devastating the community and the internship group.

Perry presents to Tribal Council about purchasing a turtle-shell shaker at auction; Chief Manitou tables her request indefinitely.

Team Misfit Toys interviews Elders about black ash baskets; some Elders have no memories of basket weaving because of boarding schools.

Perry breaks into Dr. Fenton's office at Mackinac and steals black ash baskets bearing recognizable Sugar Island family surnames.

Perry anonymously mails the stolen baskets back to their original families with a note wishing them only good memories.

Mackinac State College labels Lockhart's donated collection 'culturally unidentifiable,' blocking any repatriation through legal channels.

Shense drives Perry past Lockhart's property and identifies the generator location and power line layout for their planned heist.

Perry assembles Team Heist Misfits, recruiting Elders Granny June and Minnie to handle any baby ancestors' remains during the recovery.

Perry spends the pre-heist countdown distributing MMIWG2S missing-person fliers for Shense throughout the surrounding community.

At the recommitment ceremony, Daunis tells Perry that she and TJ are expecting a baby daughter.

From spotting her great-grandmother's basket in a museum display to interviewing Elders whose cultural knowledge was destroyed by boarding schools, Perry builds a deep personal connection to the cause of repatriation. She watches Chief Manitou undermine the process and mourns alongside a community losing its women one by one. Working quietly on the side, she returns stolen baskets to their families and carefully assembles the allies she needs for a dangerous recovery mission. When Shense vanishes before the heist can begin, Perry channels her grief into action by spreading missing-person fliers throughout the community. The story closes with a moment of new life, as Daunis announces her pregnancy at the ceremony where their ancestors are finally welcomed home.

The secondary moments that shape Perry's world and mission.

Erik confronts Perry angrily after she steals a basket from Lockhart's store, putting his probation at risk without warning him.

Leer-wah announces he is taking over the repatriation committee from Fenton and commits to a firm one-year completion deadline.

Daunis tells Perry that Grant Edwards raped her at 19 and exploited tribal land jurisdiction to avoid federal prosecution.

Perry visits traditional healer Stormy Nodin and earns his trust with a semaa offering in order to research the turtle-shell shaker's provenance.

Perry researches Lockhart's past and discovers that Claire's mother Caron vanished without explanation shortly after marrying him.

Perry pulls Pauline away from Edwards at the Lockhart announcement and warns her that he is a dangerous wiindigoo.

Erik and Perry officially reconcile their weeks-long friction and begin spending time together again.

Daunis is arrested for the murder of Edwards after multiple witnesses heard her publicly threaten to end him.

Pauline realizes that Chief Manitou was grooming her after attending an internship workshop presentation on workplace grooming tactics.

Web privately encourages Perry to investigate Lockhart's southern Sugar Island property after she shares her grave-robbing suspicions with him.

Erik reveals to Perry that Web coerced him into driving the heist van by threatening to contact his probation officer.

Web plays a secret recording of Pauline discussing the heist plan, threatening to expose her if Perry backs out or confesses.

When their captor shines a flashlight down into the pit at night, Perry recognizes him as Dr. Leer-wah.

Leer-wah tells Perry that Claire's mother Caron died in the pit long ago and reveals that his own mother is Ojibwe.

Claire confesses at the hospital that Lockhart recruited her and Web to use interns to steal the silo ancestors so Lockhart could collect insurance money.

Key discoveries and confrontations reshape Perry's understanding of who she can trust and what she is truly fighting against. She learns that her aunt was raped by a man with powerful connections to the college, and she begins recognizing the systemic forces that protect abusers of Indigenous women. Apparent allies like Leer-wah and Web reveal themselves as exploiters who have been manipulating Perry and her friends for their own gain all along. When Perry is trapped underground, her deep knowledge of Sugar Island history and her ancestors becomes her greatest weapon for survival. The final revelations expose the full scope of the conspiracy against her community and point Perry toward a future dedicated to changing the systems that keep her ancestors from coming home.