The novel opens with Sound of Running Feet, a young Nez Perce girl and the daughter of Chief Joseph. She runs into a white settler and his wife in a familiar meadow near her village. She challenges the settler and reports the incident to her father, who tells her that white settlers are coming in droves. Chief Joseph is a thoughtful and respectable chief but not a war chief—he is worried about his people.

Soon, the Blue Coat General Howard arrives. He insists the Nez Perce leave their home in Wallowa for Lapwai, a nearby reservation. Chief Joseph protests, but Howard insists. He gives them 30 days to leave. Meanwhile, Sound of Running Feet discusses her coming marriage to Swan Necklace, a gentle man and skilled painter whose father has forced him into combat.

The Nez Perce cross the river and prepare to leave, but on the final day before they reach Lapwai, there’s a conflict caused by one of the Red Coats—a gang of rebellious Nez Perce boys who want revenge on white settlers who killed their fathers. The Nez Perce soon find themselves entrenched in a deadly battle with the white settlers. They fight and flee, forcing the tribe southeast toward Montana and over the mountains.

The Nez Perce make it to Crow country, where they hope they will be safe. There are some small victories, including a successful raid against General Howard that affords them some mules and horses. A fellow tribe, the Crow, refuse to help the Nez Perce for fear of the Blue Coats. Later, the Crow join forces with white soldiers to vanquish the Nez Perce. The Nez Perce flee toward Canada to join Sitting Bull.

Before they can make it to Canada, however, soldiers ambush the Nez Perce on a windy field. Nearly everyone is killed in a multi-day battle, and Chief Joseph surrenders to the white men. Some Nez Perce escape with another chief, but the soldiers lead most of the Nez Perce to Oklahoma along the Trail of Tears, where many die of disease.

Sound of Running Feet and her fiancé, Swan Necklace, flee rather than surrender to the whites, and an Assiniboin man named Red Elk assists them. As they leave the Assiniboin village, Charging Hawk, Red Elk’s son, murders Swan Necklace and captures Sound of Running Feet for his bride. Sound of Running Feet escapes on her wedding night. She again runs toward Canada, hiding in a snowy gully beneath a white ermine blanket given to her by Charging Hawk. The novel ends when Sound of Running Feet makes the decision not to kill Charging Hawk as he searches for her in the plains. Thus, she ends the cycle of violence that has come to define her life.

Using the very real historical plight of the Nez Perce and Chief Joseph as the novel’s foundation, O’Dell creates the fictional Sound of Running Feet (likely based off of Chief Joseph’s real daughter) to introduce themes of powerful women and gender roles in Native American culture. He also explores the negative impact of colonization and the inevitability of war in such situations, as well as the Nez Perce’s spiritual relationship with their land.