In 1879, Omaha librarian Lise Dupree hides her part-Sioux heritage as she agrees to help research legal questions for a band of Ponca Indians. A quest for justice becomes a search for identity as she encounters ambitious district attorney Zach Spencer in a battle that will transform them both. In the process, they confront Lise's past, Zach's political aspirations, the dangerous prejudice of an unstable Indian agent, the subtle differences between justice and law -- and their own smoldering attraction. (Based on the actual legal case of Standing Bear v. Crook.)