The story describes the personal struggles of an eighteenth-century pioneer girl captured and bought up by the Iroquois. This carefully researched account not only explores the animosity felt by the differing ethnic and regional groups, but also delves into the positive and very humane attitudes of these very same people. As the young white girl, Calli, grows to be a part of the Indian community, she learns more than tribal skills and customs; she begins to truly understand and appreciate the wisdom, the loyalty, the sense of fairness, and most of all the great compassion the members of her new extended family share with her. Throughout the book we see the young heroine contend with the past until she can ultimately accept the present.