While Copper Spirit copes with the death of her beloved father, his spirits appear to her. They tell her that to save her people she must become a shaman. These apparitions set her on a perilous path that unfolds in the wilds of Southeast Alaska and highlights the native Tlingit and Haida cultures and beliefs. Copper Spirit's struggle to protect her people and their lands from the fateful arrival of the whitefaces drives her to fulfill her destiny.