In the prehistoric coastal Chumash Indian village of Mishopshno, life follows the rhythms of nature, cultural tradition, and the joys and sorrows of individual circumstance. Over the course of a year, members of the community hunt and fish, celebrate, mourn, gamble, woo, tell stories, and undertake a perilous trading trip to the off-shore islands. Aleqwel, a young paint maker, has new responsibilities after his father is killed by a grizzly bear, while young love is blossoming between his sister and his best friend. The village leader faces a diplomatic crisis that may lead to war, while his son has a romantic dilemma of his own. The Chumash world is alive and full of willful beings that must be addressed through the proper use of power. In Mishopshno we relive an existence handed down through countless generations, coherent and intact, long before the arrival of Europeans, who changed that world forever.