Tess and her sister, Gaby, are as close as sisters can be, or at least they were. But then Gaby enlists in the army, and soon after that she is deployed to Iraq. And this all happens on the heels of the death of their friend Lori, the first Native American woman to die in combat on foreign soil.

When Gaby asks Tess to take care of Blue, her beloved but headstrong horse, Tess is furious - about being left behind with a horse she doesn't trust and about the danger Gaby is facing. This was supposed to be Gaby and Tess's big year together in Flagstaff, with Gaby in college and Tess at the junior high. Gaby is the only one who understands how Tess feels: alone and singled out as the Indian girl at school and not Navajo enough on the Rez.

Accompanying her grandma - Tess's shima sani - to sheep camp in the canyon for the summer gives Tess the opportunity to come to terms with her sister's choices. But when tragedy strikes, can Tess's relationship with Gaby ever be the same?