Her name is Bear. She is happy here in the Indian village she has chosen to call home even though to look at her you would see that she has white skin. At 15, she is the mate of Bright Feather and the people of The Maple Forest are her family. All she loves and holds dear are in this special garden walled around. This is the story of a captive white girl named Elle Graves who transforms into a powerful Indian woman, wife, and mother. The book encompasses a period in the 19th century during which the Cherokee achieved great success. However, dark struggles are looming, threatening all the things that she treasures. The greatest of all threats comes from the white world, a place that Bear was born into but chooses to reject. Worst of all, could her precious garden walled around be in greater danger simply because of the choices she has made to stay? Bear discovers, the hardest of choices that anyone must make has to do with those you love.