Central to this novel, the second in Highwater's ghost Horse cycle, is Amana, the solitary figure who tries to hold together the lives of the people around her. But even with her strength, "things fall apart; the center cannot hold." As Amana's life disintegrates, so does the traditional life of Native American tribes. She goes from being a woman warrior and a legend to being the mistress of a trader, a beggar, and finally a dish washer at a restaurant.

In a total break with her past, Amana leaves her native people on the reservation to live in the town of Fort Benton. Later she finds that her request for land on the Blackfeet reservation is denied because there is no record of her on the tribal register. When she visits the tribal office on the Blood reservation, she finds "all the legends had been forgotten . . . They looked...