The Corn Maiden's Gift is the fifth installment in The People of the Stone saga detailing the origins and spread of prehistoric American culture from the end of the Ice Age to the arrival of the first Europeans. Set at the height of the great mound building period of the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys over one thousand years ago, it is the story of how a rising civilization must cope with both internal and external waves of change to hold back the inevitable forces of decline and fall. It is a story of two families from either end of the social spectrum, whose lives get intertwined and caught up in this sudden coming together of the spiritual, historical, and ecological conflicts that will forever alter the face of native North America and its great heartland.