Years following the events of The Indian and the Cowboy and Justice, Myrya Blackstone and Debbie James have inherited the Fruit Importing business per the will of Peter James. Myrya, and orphan Ojibwe, never met Peter James, but learned that he was there at the hospital after his son, George, had sliced Myrya's face, requiring over 200 stiches. Despite never meeting Peter, Myrya inherited quite a treasure from him. But Myrya learns that there was more to the will than what was written. Myrya and Debbie learn that Peter had also left them with a key to a secret compartment in his desk that further adds to the mysterious life Peter lived.
In their attempt to remove the shroud over Peter's life, Myrya and Debbie travel to Snake River, but the truth of Peter's life continues to elude them. After learning about one secret, they are led to even more, and one question guides Myrya and Debbie's adventure: who was Peter James? And why was Peter James such a significant figure in Myrya's life? These questions are hard to find answers to when the man with all the answers is dead in a Jewish cemetery in Algonquin, and the only clues he left are cryptic.
Just when Myrya and Debbie start making headway in understanding who Peter was, a figure from their past reappears and halts their sleuthing. With this new threat looming over them, Myrya and Debbie must seek the help of unlikely allies to make sure that the past remains dead.
Through all the turmoil of murder and mystery, Myrya recognized that the 'medicine' she received from the elder, Elisapee, on the Blue Fish Reserve many years ago, is finally realized at a pre-confederation Jewish cemetery on Hawk Hill, near Algonquin Park.