Tala can't wait to be thirteen; then no one better tell her what to do. Her nosey neighbor is always checking up on her, and now the Welfare Officer is knocking on her door again and her father isn't home to answer. Tala only has a few hours to find her missing father before she and her brother, Dason, get placed in a foster home.
Her quest brings them to secluded woods where they discover that a group of bear poachers are responsible for their father's disappearance. Can they survive the night alone in woods alive with hungry bears and angry hunters? Will she be able to find her father before the hunters do?
Her adventures bring her in contact with the legendary woodland characters: the pipe-smoking frog-like people and the giant ferocious black bird. These characters are a vivid part of her Mi'Kmaq ancestry, told and retold from one generation to another. They've always existed happily for her in stories, but now, faced with a real-life crisis, they've become surreal and grotesque? She must learn to trust the wisdom of her ancestors if she wants to succeed in her quest to reunite her family.