In 1835, near the headwaters of the Arkansas River, Cara Rojo, a Ute war chief finds an eight year old white girl who had witnessed her family being swept away in a flash flood the day before. The girl has blocked out the horror of the flood and can not speak, yet seems to fear nothing. The Ute Indians take her to their village and name her Tavimois, the Spirit of the Sunrise. The girl is Hannah Headly, and her brother, Daniel, has survived the flood, but believes his sister was killed with his younger brother and parents. Daniel is nursed back to health by Big Butt, the Crow wife of negro Mountain man Bull Thompson. Needing money to return to the East, Daniel hires on as Bull Thompson’s helper and heads deeper into the wilderness to trade with the plains tribes to the West and North. Bull takes Daniel to meet the, Frenchman, Phillip Rondel, who has a beautiful half Indian daughter he wants to marry off to a white man. Daniel is soon smitten by Monique Rondel’s beauty. After a winter of trading with the Indians, Bull Thompson brings Daniel back to the Frenchman’s camp and Daniel asks Monique to Marry him. Monique will only marry a Sundancer, and Daniel agrees to Sundance. Bull Thompson gives Daniel opium to dull the pain of the bone needles the Indians thrust through his chest muscles to start the sundance. Hanging by leather cords tied to the bone needles in his chest, Daniel has a sun dream, a vision of his sister running happily through a forest of laughing aspens.

My love of art has never wavered. I had not painted since my teenage years. The loss of my son through adoption many years before, along with a lack of expression of my own creativity, had left me bereft and plummeting into deeper depression time and time again. Art had been such a saviour to me as a child, when I was confused by what was happening around me. In my own grief and pain as a teenager, I deprived myself of my one sanctity in a self-imposed punishment. I would allow myself to paint again when I found my son, and so the bargain was made. I found my son in 2008. I have a profound belief in the power of creativity in all its forms to heal. Lily was my saving grace. This book is for everyone looking to find their heart again and in so doing touch base with that child that lives inside.