Wakiya-knaskiya Byron Bighorn, a five-year-old boy, lives in extreme prairie solitude and bitter poverty with his mother and younger siblings. However, this solitude grants him peace and visions. When he has to attend school, the stark idyll shatters. He increasingly suffers from epileptic seizures. Soon after a devastating prairie fire that the family narrowly survives, Wakiya becomes the foster son of Joe and Queenie King. Joe King wants to establish a school ranch, but a white rancher wants to lease the land and finds support from influential tribal members. In this situation, Queenie decides to return to the art school in Santa Fe, which Joe perceives as betrayal. He disowns his wife. Intrigues bring Joe King to court, where he is accused of murder. Sidney Bighorn, an ambitious careerist and bitter enemy of Joe King, is St.