Eleven-year-old Alice Folsom must be brave. She has no choice. Not only for her grandmother’s sake, but now for the sake of her newly adopted six-year-old sister, Issi. They both survived being torn away from the homes and the people they love. They survived a seemingly endless journey by train across lands that were unfamiliar to them. At the Carlisle School, a boarding school for American Indian children and teenagers, they have learned that they must speak a language not their own and live according to other people’s rules—or else they will be punished. No matter what happens, Alice and Issi, and their new friends Jim, Lucy, and Mary, will show those in charge what true bravery looks like.