Christophe is another captive that Bird calls Crow, keeping him in the belief that he will be of use in future trades with other colonialists.

At Gosling's suggestion, Bird makes a plan to allow Christophe to be murdered by the Haudenosaunee when he and a band of warriors go to visit the French colonists to participate in trade that summer.

On the journey Snow Falls decides to make it so Bird can never forget her; she does this by cutting off his pinky finger in the night and mistakenly her own as well.

The little audience he gains is quickly taken away when Bird and members of a neighbouring village depart for the summer on a trading mission.

He decides to throw a ten-day mass to pray for rain, and to his surprise he is successful and a few of the villagers return to evening prayers.

However, after Gosling cures a sick woman in front of the entire village, the people turn on Christophe and his fellow priests once more.

The two older men are tortured to death, but Snow Falls begs Bird to adopt the youngest boy into their family and he agrees.

Bird ends up sending his new adoptive son to live with the priests and they also gain a handful of converts from neighbouring villages.

He is also informed that Christophe, Aaron, Snow Falls, her new brother, and Carries an Axe were last seen on their way to the now destroyed village in an attempt to gather converts.

The final section of the novel begins with Snow Falls, Gosling and Carries an Axe arriving at the colonists' village.

There she sees her former tribe, the Haudenosaunee, torturing members of the village from afar and realizes she no longer belongs to them.

She and her party are overtaken by Haudenosaunee who try to rape her and kill the rest of the men but they are saved by herself and Carries an Axe.

The following winter Snow Falls gives birth to a daughter and news comes that Bird's village has been attacked leaving only 30 or so survivors.

Snow Falls and Delilah are poisoned by a Jesuit who has already been through the torture of the Haudenosaunee and believes that death is preferable.

Gosling gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl, and tells him that the next summer they will live with her people, the Anishnaabe.