When Kate overhears a conversation at her mother's funeral, she is shocked. Could it be the grandfather she believed was dead is still alive and living only a few hours away in Cherokee, North Carolina? When she tracks her grandfather down, she learns he's very much alive but wants nothing to do with her or the world she comes from. Tsan, a full-blooded Cherokee, is determined to forget a disappointment-filled past by living alone on Snowbird Mountain. Tsan orders Kate to leave, but before she does, he's shot while trying to defend eagles from ruthless poachers. Kate rescues her grandfather and, a short time later, the eaglet whose parents were stolen by the poachers. Kate convinces Tsan to let her live with him for the summer while he recovers. As together they raise the orphaned eaglet, Tsan teaches Kate about her Cherokee heritage and she teaches him to trust loving again. When the poachers return for more eagles, Kate and Tsan join forces to save these majestic birds, but at what cost to their own lives?