In the late 1800s, a twelve-year-old nightspirit living in the Great Smoky Mountains despairs as homesteaders destroy her forest habitat, until a chance encounter with a "day-folk" man changes everything she thought she knew about her people--and their greatest enemy.

Strangers digging in the mountains, and the disappearance of Mandie's uncle and a Cherokee boy lead Mandie to a new mystery.

On a day filled with anticipation, a young Cherokee girl bids farewell to her familiar city life and documents the changing landscape through drawings as her family moves to their ancestral land and embraces their new home.