Thomas King unites two strong, sassy women with three hard-luck, hard-headed men, all searching for the middle ground between Native American tradition and the modern world, in an elaborate dance of approach and avoidance in this magical, rollicking tale. King mixes realism, fantasy, and stories within stories to set up a meeting between five Blackfoot Indians and four of their very ancient, peripatetic relatives and their companion, the trickster Coyote, with results that ensure nothing in their small town of Blossom will ever be the same again.