It is a joyful day when an infant boy is born into a free roaming tribe of Abnaki Indians residing in Vermont. As the village celebrates little White Eagle's birth, a pair of unfriendly eyes watches from the distance and contemplates how to uproot the friendly tribe from their home.
While White Eagle grows up in a loving family, the white man settles closer every day to their village, eventually forcing the tribe to move to a reservation governed by their race. As White Eagle's journey eventually leads to become the one of tribe's best hunters and the next-in-line to become chief, he finds love, marries, and sires a son. But when smallpox takes his family away forever, a devastated White Eagle "buries them back at the village where they had been forced to leave by the white man. Determined not to abandon them, White Eagle finds refuge from his troubles inside a nearby mountain cave and creates a solitary existence. As years and seasons pass, White Eagle quietly ages without any idea that he is about to finally realize his purpose in the world.
In this historical novel, an Abnaki Indian journeys through a challenging existence as he attempts to avoid capture by the white man and bravely confronts his destiny as life comes full circle.