After a hunt that brought the tribe much needed supplies, Yakari is visited in his dreams by the buffalo, killed the day of his birth, whose pelt still serves as his blanket. Intrigued, the young Sioux and Little Thunder go see the great herd. From encounter to encounter, and by helping a young mother and her newborn calf against a particularly nasty wolf, Yakari learns to know those majestic animals so important to his own people's survival.