In the winter of 1866, the Rattle Band returns to the Palo Duro Canyon, the traditional Kiowa winter camp, for the first time since Kit Carson's attack on the canyon two years earlier. Almost immediately, however, bad things start to happen. First, Skywalker, a powerful healer, wanders off and cannot be found. Then two horses are killed in the middle of the night and the herders claim that a shapeshifter - a witch they had seen turn into a raven - was responsible. Already scared, the entire camp is thrown into a frenzy of fear when a chief's wife dies unexpectedly. While the camp is searching for witch among them, Tay-bodal begins to investigate. Anxious for his missing friend Skywalker and sure that there is no supernatural cause behind these events, Tay-bodal must uncover the truth before fear destroys the bonds that unite the Kiowa Band.