Colby's post-high school plans have long been that he and his best friend Beth would tour with her band, then spend a year in Europe, but when she announces that she will start college just after the tour, Colby struggles to understand why she changed her mind and what losing her means for his future.

When Kenai, a Native American boy living in the Pacific Northwest in prehistoric times, is transformed into a bear, he learns about the lives of creatures other than man.

In 1765, the arrival of an injured stranger from another tribe, traveling alone and apparently unable to speak, arouses suspicion in Kaya's Nez Perce village. Includes glossary and historical notes on the Nez Perce Indians.