It is 1740 and Black Wolf, an aged warrior, has a dying vision: The wolves will leave the prairie, and so will the Nez Perce Indians. The vision promises his descendants will only return when the wolves do. In the 20th century, his descendant Emma Wolf Alone follows her baby's father to California where she forms a lifelong friendship with Tessie, and their children Tom and Seesee find trials and tribulations of their own. When Tom and his daughter Sara search for the black wolf in and around Hell's Canyon, their journey leads to the fruition of Black Wolf's vision, bringing a three hundred year tale of struggle and survival, love and loss, bound by common dreams, to a conclusion.