The author of Love Medicine brings an unforgettable novel about the irrevocable patterns set in motion by certain fateful acts. A soldier deserts the cavalry during a cruel raid on an Ojibwa village to chase a dog bearing on its back a baby on a cradle board strung with breathtaking blue beads. Generations later, a fast-talking trader kidnaps a silent and graceful woman from a powwow. In a haunting recreation of a native tale, the woman is part antelope - hunter and hunted change identities and nothing is ever the same for those involved.