With her mother newly remarried, fouteen-year-old Lenora Rydz is having problems finding her place in her new "instant" family. In a moment of anger, she sets out on a daredevil canoe trip. The canoe capsizes in white water, and Lenora has to fight for her life. Luckily she reaches the shore and is found by a young native named Isaac Manyfeathers. Isaac has been travelling through the woods for three days, denying himself food and water. He's escaped from a detention centre to search out the idyllic world he knew as a child, and to recapture his true spirit. To Lenora he seems to be out of his mind. . . And their meeting begins to change hoth their lives.