After his father's untimely suicide, Cufe leaves his home in a Native American reservation in search of a more fulfilling life.

A death in Oklahoma sets in motion events leading to something great: so says a Muscogee-speaking narrator when Cufe Smallhill, a registered Seminole who's part Creek, discovers his father's body one morning. Per dad's wishes, Cufe sinks the body in a pond. After a closed-casket funeral - Cufe's cousin loads a donated coffin with weights and a watermelon - Cufe goes to Tulsa to spend time with his sister, Miri. He meets Miri's neighbor, Francie. They talk and listen, and things seem to open up for Cufe. Miri has her problems, though, including an estrangement from her mother, Cora. Miri drinks too much, sleeps around, and steals from her boss. How can anything great come of this?—<[email protected]>

From the Seminole and Creek nations, Cufe (pronounced "choo-fee", which means rabbit in his native language) Smallhill, still lives with his parents Frankie and Cora Smallhill in their native rural Oklahoma territory, where he leads a rather insular life like many in his circumstance. His choice to stay at home is largely out of inertia. Frankie and Cora's daughter, Miri Smallhill, long left home, where she saw a dead end if she didn't leave, to live in Tulsa. There, Miri has fallen prey to the many temptations available in the big city. Frankie and Cora married for love, but that marriage has deteriorated to the point where they merely tolerate each other, although they still depend on each other emotionally. After Frankie dies - the circumstances behind which and the "fakeness" of the resulting burial which only Cufe, Cora and Cufe's cousin Jim know about - Cufe, taking her up on her casual offer, decides to go to Tulsa to visit with Miri to deal with the emotional emptiness from Frankie being gone, that emptiness manifesting itself in insomnia. In the process of spending time in Tulsa with Miri, Cufe may come to some new understandings of his life, those understandings arrived with the help of Miri's next door neighbor, Francie. Meanwhile, Cora herself may find that there is life after Frankie.—Huggo