The introduction has two illegal artifact hunters who find a cave with a spiral carved into the back wall and the bones of someone with a fused leg, which is eventually explained in this book. Wolf Dreamer and the Wolf Bundle converse at the end of each chapter. Wolf Bundle does not have the patience of Wolf Dreamer, as it is dying owing to lack of care.
It is a time of drought (fire). There are two kinds of tribes. The hunters live in the plains, depend on meat, mostly buffalo, for food, and are represented by the Short Buffalo, led by Heavy Beaver. The hunter/gatherers live in the mountains, depend on plants, as well as meat, and are represented by the Red Hand led by Blood Bear. The conflict arises because the Short Buffalo want the mountains of the Red Hand since some buffalo still exist there, and there is less drought in the mountains.
Clear Water, the child of the Red Hand Cut Feather and the woman dreamer White Calf (who had left to dream high in the mountains), has power. She was instructed to marry Blood Bear whom she left as soon as she conceived. On instruction from the “Wolf Man” (Wolf Dreamer of Book 1) she left with Two Smokes, a berdache (a berdache is a transgender male considered to be a person of power, a mediator between male and female—this is true of many indigenous American peoples). They also took the sacred Wolf Bundle, which Two Smokes guarded. The loss of the Wolf Bundle caused Blood Bear to be ostracized. Clear Water was killed trying to hunt buffalo shortly after the birth of her son, Little Dancer, and Two Smokes badly injured his knee during the same hunt. White Calf was guided to them and saved their lives. She took them to her grandson Hungry Bull (a Short Buffalo) and his wife Sage Root who had just lost her child. The Short Buffalo did not respect berdache power and Two Smokes was badly abused, but he had promised to take care of Little Dancer and the Wolf Bundle. Little Dancer inherited the power to dream from his mother but Sage Root didn’t want him to use it.
The Wolf Bundle is treated badly by Heavy Beaver, a false dreamer. He believes women are a pollution, and must be made subservient. He condemns Little Dancer’s mother to death because she killed antelope for the hungry people. She commits suicide in the absence of Hungry Bull and in the confusion Blood Bear steals back the Wolf Bundle. White Calf brings Hungry Bull back just in time to save Little Dancer and Two Smokes from being killed by Heavy Beaver. They and some other families leave to live with White Calf on the other side of the mountains.
Both Heavy Beaver and Blood Bear, now a leader again, are evil persons. Heavy Beaver is brutally consolidating the Plains people and Blood Bear is trying to sleep with all women, especially girls who have menstruated for the first time. Elk Charm decides she doesn’t want this and her mother secretly sends her to White Calf, where she meets Little Dancer, whom she marries. Even though he is a dreamer and shouldn’t marry, the Wolf Dreamer gives him some time.
Little Dancer has bad dreams and in winter goes to White Calf for instruction. She shows him the circle of stones on a high place, showing all the seasons. He gets caught in a snow storm on his way back to Elk Charm and is saved by the Black Wolf, the Watcher, who then stays with him. The fighting between the tribes worsens and Tanager, the wild girl of the Red Hand is caught and raped by seven Short Buffalo. She goes to White Calf who invests power in her, telling her she will be the new leader of the Red Hand, but she must trust the Dreamer. White Calf is killed by one of the Short Buffalo warriors tracking Tanager, who in turn kills all but one of them. He goes back to tell of her. Tanager begins to consolidate the Red Hand warriors, much to the anger of Blood Bear and the disbelief of Heavy Beaver.
Little Dancer goes to a high pinnacle and is bitten by a rattlesnake, fulfilling the dream of Heron in the first book. He reaches the One with the help of Wolf Dreamer, and is then named Fire Dancer. The time has come to confront Blood Bear and get the Wolf Bundle back and renew it, which he does. He is required to kill the Black Wolf to have Two Smokes make a new cover for the Bundle from the wolf skin. The Wolf Bundle contains several items from the first book: a polar bear claw, a mammoth carved on a piece of ivory, a large stone mammoth dart point, a raven’s head, a sea shell, and wolf’s teeth.
Fire Dancer and Two Smokes confront Heavy Beaver, backed by Tanager. Heavy Beaver dies and the people are eventually saved, as are the buffalo. The Wolf Bundle will go with Tanager, the leader of the Red Hand. Two Smokes will teach the importance of gathering grass seeds and preparing them as food.
At the end a Trader is telling the story of Fire Dancer, but it has changed. Elk Charm is an old woman and thinks perhaps the change is for the better.
Important to remember:
Wolf Dreamer explains the importance of free will among humansThe importance of the number four and being purified for four days
The further development of what will become the sweat lodge
Power is stronger in high places.
The story of First Man: Wise One Above turned into Crafty Spider and spun the Starweb. He created the Second World full of all the souls of people who had died and rose up to fill the Starweb, becoming stars. In the First World people and animals were fighting. Men no longer thanked the animals and plants when they killed them. The Wise One Above then created a Third World filled with spirits to help people when asked. The Hero Twins were born in the First World, their mother died, and they were raised by Wolf. One liked the light and the other the darkness. Then the Wise One Above made the Fourth World and Wolf was to bring good animals through a hole between the worlds. Wolf got lonely for the Twins and dreamed the Wolf Dream to First Man and gave him Wolf Bundle to guide him and good people to the Fourth World. The evil brother followed, bringing evil. The good brother killed the evil one. He then drew the spiral to remind people that everything is one. As long as people remembered, the world wouldn't break apart. The dreamer dances to keep the spiral whole. The Spiral is life, unity, whole of creation, beginning, end and transition.