Protagonist Cole Matthews, a 15-year-old boy from Minneapolis, has been arrested for violently beating up a boy who turned him in for robbing and trashing a hardware store. He is on a boat in handcuffs; a Tlingit parole office named Garvey and an elder named Edwin are taking Cole to serve his sentence on an Alaskan Island. Cole was tried as an adult because of the crime’s violence, but due to Garvey’s interest in helping Cole, he has the option to serve his time alone on an Alaskan Island—a process known as Circle Justice and “a healing form of justice practiced by native cultures for thousands of years” (12). Garvey explained Circle Justice to Cole while Cole was in a detention center, noting that it focuses on healing both the person who committed the violent act and the victim(s). Cole saw it as a joke but agreed to avoid jail.

Cole feels that he is at war with the world. His parents are recently divorced, his father has severe anger and alcohol issues, and his mother seems to care more about image than her son. Cole hates being touched because “nobody ever touche[s] him except to hit him” (13), and he is suspicious of everyone he meets, assuming they must have some ulterior motive.