The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Power, Mona Susan. A Council of Dolls. Harper Collins Publishers, 2023. Kindle Edition

A Council of Dolls is primarily told in reverse chronological order. It starts out with the family story of Lillian, Cornelius, and their daughter, Sissy. Lillian is Dakhóta, and Cornelius is Lakȟóta. Sissy is a school aged child when the novel opens, and she has a rough relationship with her mother. Her mother is an emotionally volatile person who loses her temper frequently. Sissy does her best to be as perfect as she can so as to not upset her mother, but she is unable to refrain from all mistakes. She learns that deep under her bed is the safest place to hide when her mother goes into a rage.

Sissy’s childhood is not a wholly unhappy one. She has some good times with both of her parents, especially during outings around the city of Chicago where they live. They do not have a lot of money. One day after shopping, Sissy accidentally drops her grocery bag, and her mother goes into a rage. Sissy runs into their apartment building to the top floor. Her mother makes it to the top after her and ends up falling to her death over the ledge. Sissy does not know whether she or Ethel pushed her mother.

Part 2 goes back to tell the story of Lillian and Cornelius’s younger years. Lillian’s family was not a happy one. Her mother, Cora, was very loving, but her father, Jack, was angry, abusive, and was an alcoholic. Her mother cared for the family as best as she could, and her children tried to protect her from Jack as best they could. Still, they could not always keep him from humiliating her. Lillian and Blanche, her sister, create a mud doll of their father and bury him.

Lillian and Blanche are sent to an Indian Boarding School in Bismarck, North Dakota. There they befriend brothers Cornelius and Luther. Both brothers love Lillian. While at the school, Blanche angers the sisters who run the school by singing in a native tongue, and she is killed by being forced to drink lye soap that has been melted in water. Lillian watches this from above with her doll, Ethel.

Part 3 of the story moves further back in time to tell the story of Cora and Jack who meet on the way to the Carlisle Indian Industrial Boarding School. When they get to the school, their belongings are burnt, including Cora’s prized doll, Winona. Jack is able to save a part of the doll when he is tasked with burying the remains, and he gives it to Cora. Cora knows there is something about Jack that her parents would not approve of, and Winona frequently warns her of Jack. Jack is half white and half Dakhóta, and he is hated by his white father. Jack gets into trouble numerous times during his time at the school. One day he feels himself being choked from the outside, and he intuitively knows that it is his sister, Alice, that is being choked by his father. An authority figure at the school is able to get word to his family, and he quickly is told that Alice choked on some food she ate and died. Knowing this is not the case, Jack sneaks away and confronts his father physically. This results in both of his parents pressing charges, and Jack spends a year in prison in Minnesota before returning to Carlisle.

Part 4 returns back to the story of Sissy, but she has since changed her name to Jesse. She chose a name that could either be for a male or female so her gender would not hinder her writing career. She is a successful writer but suffers from imposter syndrome, and she has anxiety attacks at times. As an adult, she lives with a cockatoo named Prince. One day she is reminded of her doll, Ethel, and she goes into her trunk where it is stored. She goes on a journey with the dolls presented throughout the novel, and each tells her its story.

Winona tells her about how she was crafted to ease the pain of a mother who was withering away after losing her child moments after birth. The doll was able to bring her back to life. Winona, an authentic Dakhóta doll witnesses tremendous suffering as she is passed along through the generations, including witnessing a massacre. Mae and Ethel also tell their stories, and Ethel’s story ultimately answers the question Jesse has had throughout her whole life: how did her mother die? Ethel tells Jesse that Ethel served as a mirror to Lillian, and at that moment, Lillian understood how much she could hurt her daughter. She accidentally stumbled backwards, but instead of catching herself, she lets herself fall to protect her daughter.

Jesse learns that her mother has been trying to reach her and has been with her all the time as have been the spirits of her ancestors. These women all want Jesse to tell their story. She does this as she sits down and writes all that the dolls tell her. She knows that she will always carry her ancestors with her.