The story of a Native American girl, abandoned on a tiny island, who is protected by a wild dog.

When her whole tribe disappears from Westerners, Karana and her brother have to survive themselves. However, her brother is killed by wild dogs, and, all alone, she needs to survive on her own before befriending the very dog that killed her brother. She sometimes has hard struggle but passes what people think women can't do and does it with no help at all but the knowledge she learned as a young girl