Fifteen-year-old Mark Centeno is of Chumash, Crow, Mexican and Filipino ancestry--he calls himself "four kinds of brown." When Mark goes to live with his Chumash grandmother on the reservation in central California, he discovers a rich world of family history and culture that he knows very little about. He also finds a pathway to understanding better a part of his own identity: powwow dancing. Riveted by the traditional dancers and feeling the magnetic pull of the drums, Mark begins the training and other preparations necessary for him to compete as a dancer in one of America's largest powwows.