Young William "Wilum" Greyhorse carves small animals and toys for his younger sisters as a method of coping with alcoholic parents and physical abuse. With the growing estrangement from his family, he is shaken by the increasingly powerful feeling that he is different. The day he meets Jason Bedford in an Albuquerque park, the Native American youth's unexplained yearnings blaze into outright desire. Jason, a successful Anglo artist, likewise exposes him to a different, heretofore unimagined, economic lifestyle. When his whittling turns into art, Wilam begins to hope this will provide a way of escape from the trap his life has become. Born into a Native American culture without a tradition of respect for Two-Spirits, Wilam finally embraces his unusual appetites and struggles to chart an uncertain course through the homophobic society surrounding him. His growing skill as a sculptor helps him find his way. His search for a soul mate proves more difficult.