Mitzi Bearclaw, of First Nations heritage, has just turned twenty-five, she having grand plans for this milestone year in her current home of Toronto, wanting to design hats that will change the world, and spending time with her boyfriend, Ringo Leaves-No-Shadow, a student and budding photographer. Instead, she reluctantly heads home to her reserve on remote Owl Island on the request of her father, William Bearclaw, to help him look after her mother, Annabelle Bearclaw, who Mitzi assumes is on her deathbed. While Mitzi has always gotten along with her father, the same cannot be said about her mother, an angry, bitter woman. The one person who has always been able to have a calming affect on Annabelle is Mitzi's cousin, Charlie Bearclaw - everyone calling him Charlie B. in homage to all his idols with a surname that begins with the letter such as Baudelaire - a born storyteller who wants to become a teacher, but who spends much time in the hospital with his own chronic health problems. William and Annabelle raised Charlie as their own after the death of his own parents. Beyond her mother, Mitzi doesn't want to head back to Owl Island as she believes nothing good comes from living there, the place which makes everyone become crazy. Mitzi discovers upon her arrival that her mother, while still angry, bitter and not in great health, is nowhere near on her deathbed. For however long Mitzi spends on Owl Island, she may leave with a different perspective due to her time with her parents, with Charlie who returns home after his most recent stint in the hospital in Toronto, with Honeyboy Yellowdog, who operates the boat service to/from the island on behalf of his father, her interest in him despite brash Simone Muskrat, of the not well liked Muskrat family, clinging to Honeyboy as his supposed girlfriend, and with three spirits that pervade life on the island: Faith, Hope and especially Charity.