In the aftermath of the Wounded Knee uprising, a Native American Jurist leaves his position on the World Court and returns to the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota to defend members of the American Indian Movement from federal prosecution.
Following his assassination, Isaiah, his half-breed son is summoned by tribal elders to be the person who is to release his father's spirit to the Great Mystery. To fulfill that obligation, Isaiah is forced to revisit his rejected heritage and undertake a perilous journey to a place that no non-Native American had ever been permitted to enter.