The night of Nan's eighteenth birthday was spent on graveyard duty at the Sequoyah Boarding School for Orphan Indians. You would think that it would have been a quiet night. However, the apparition of her grandmother and her message changed the course of her life in mere seconds.
Nan does everything she can to outrun destiny but fate, and her grandmother, have something else in mind: to take her place as the Beloved Woman of the Cherokee. Rather than face the unknown at the Indian Village of Galowhisdi, Nan does the one thing everyone knows you shouldn't-she runs from her destiny.
Nan is unsuccessful, and tragedy leads her back to the one place she never wanted to see. An ancient foe disguised as her current nemesis is trying to keep Nan from becoming the one thing that will keep her people safe. Her new family, her emerging spiritual gifts, and the animals help Nan become who she was meant to be all along.
Her tribe and life depend on her successful completion of the initiation of Three Full Moons.