In the unmapped wilderness of seventeenth century Canada, French Jesuit missionaries armed with Bibles harvest souls for the Roman Catholic Church, competing with European fur traders fortified with guns. When Tikanaka, a Wendat maiden girl, pushes seventeen-year-old Remy Moisson into an icy Canadian river, he considers the absurdity of being captured on his first mission for the explorer Robert Cavalier de La Salle, but is instead set free and left wondering why a young girl attacked him with no motive. Tikanaka eventually seduces Remy who has spent most of his life in a French monastery school. Entranced by his first sexual experience, Remy is torn between this Indian maiden and his desire for adventure with La Salle who is determined to find the mouth of the Mississippi. Trysts with Tikanaka deepen Remy's attachment and just as he is beginning to fall in love, he leaves her to join La Salle's voyage. Upon his return, Remy learns that Tika's tribe has been attacked and massacred by the Iroquois.
Refusing to believe that his headstrong maiden is dead, Remy begins a search for her, knowing that he can never give up his quest to find the girl who stole his heart.