In 1841 thirteen-year-old Libby and her family begin a new life on the shores of Lake Michigan where her father works as a surveyor for the Ottawa Indians and Libby is reunited with her Indian friend Fawn.
During the year he is held prisoner by an escaped convict on an uninhabited island in Lake Superior, a young boy watches his captor change from desperate criminal to a gentler man absorbed in the abundant wildlife of the island.