When sixteen-year-old Running Hawk is exiled to the South Yadkin River basin for twelve months-ostensibly as punishment for getting the chief 's daughter pregnant-his tribal elders believe it's a death sentence. Nevertheless, he sets out to build a home for himself, Summer, and their baby. Soon after the resettlement of the half-Saponi orphan, a white wolf mysteriously appears and inadvertently kicks off a yearlong odyssey that eventually throws Running Hawk's lot in with General George Washington's secret service. This rapidly changing organization, known as the Culpers, serves to protect the laws laid out by the United States and by other more secretive organizations. The young Indian soon finds himself drawn into the white man's world. Along the way, Running Hawk feels a powerful force pulling him toward an unknown end. He experiences a number of anomalies-strange flying disks, rocks that turned red before buzzing, precision-guided owls and a shaman with halitosis-that suggest there is much more to the universe than he imagined. In this novel, an exiled Indian teenager embarks on a journey that entangles him with early American intrigue and brings him face-to-face with an extraordinary encounter.