Indigo, an Indian girl from Arizona orphaned by U.S. Cavalry, is adopted by an intellectual white woman who takes her on a tour of Europe. A look at Western civilization through Indigo's eyes.
On her sixteenth birthday, Sky and River, the boy with whom she has shared Island since she was a toddler, are "rescued: and taken to California, where Sky is separated from River, forced to live with a grandmother she has just met, and learn new rules for survival.