Set in the southern Adirondacks of upstate New York, during World War Two, eleven-year-old Mary, and her younger brother, Chief, survive the premature death of their Native American (Abenaki) mother only to suffer abuses from their white father. When they are sent to live with a widowed aunt in Fiddler's Rock, it appears they have a good home, but an unplanned pregnancy and two deaths change that. -- cover.