Abby is a teenager looking forward to her summer visitation with her maternal grandfather, who lives in the Yukon Territory with the Elk Kirk First Nation. She soon learns she is not who she thought she was and discovers her family's secrets. Abby has read in several books that some secrets are so unbelievable or horrific that family members refrain from repeating them, for fear of being ridiculed or shunned. Abby believes that is true of her family--until she learns differently. She sees her family's heartaches and their ability to pull together as one, and she realizes their hopes, loves, happiness, celebration, and mystical connection to the heavens.