Eagle Feather owes a debt to his father's cousin, and must work it off during the summer. His father's cousin mistreats him, and finally Eagle Feather can bear it no longer and runs away. Can the eagle feather he finds along the way really give him the bravery to endure the long and hungry journey?
When the cruel cousin he has been working for refuses to let him leave at the end of the summer, a young Navajo boy runs away to rejoin his family and go to school.