Lionel was very young when his parents died, so he can barely remember the old days, before he and his sister Beatrice came to the Chalk Bluff Boarding School on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. His life is peaceful enough, as long as he obeys the priests and the army officers who control the reservation. So he can't understand why Beatrice seems to provoke their anger at every turn: why she refuses to cut her hair short and insists on honoring the old Blackfeet traditions that the priests have forbidden. When the appearance of a frozen corpse triggers an irreversible chain of events, Lionel and Beatrice find themselves on a stolen horse fleeing for their lives. Somewhere in the mountains, beyond the territory claimed by the white men, lies their grandfather's homestead—and the promise of freedom. If only they can survive long enough to find him... At once thought-provoking and action-packed, this incredibly original and beautifully-written novel takes readers on an unforgettable journey through the wilderness of Montana in the early 1900s.