Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses suicide, murder, and alcohol use disorder. In addition, the source text depicts racism toward Indigenous cultures and people, and uses outdated and offensive terms for Anishinaabe and Dakota people, which are replicated in this guide only in direct quotes.

The novel flashes back in time to Cork O’Connor’s adolescence.

Cork is 14 years old and hunting a bear with Sam Winter Moon, his father’s best friend. Cork’s father has been dead for a year, but he and Sam are still grieving. They set a traditional Anishinaabe bear trap, which neither of them has done before. When they check it, they find that although the trap was sprung, the bear escaped. They are impressed because the trap was engineered to drop an enormous log that should have killed the bear.

Knowing the bear must be injured, Sam and Cork decide to follow its trail. If it is hurt, they need to find and kill it. They fast and purify themselves with cedar smoke. The next morning, they blacken their faces with the ash, smoke tobacco, and pack the necessary gear. They return to the trap and follow the bear’s trail throughout the day, off the reservation and deep into the wilderness.