When David Almerin Ames remembers his seemingly idyllic childhood at the edge of the Penobscot River and the sea, he conjures up a magical place of woods, water, and freedom. He and his brothers saw this wild patch of Maine as theirs. Running down the state like a spine, the river shares its name with the people of the Penobscot Nation, whose ancestral territory included the entire Penobscot watershed - the land upon which the Ames family eventually made their home. Their father, Arnoux, is a romantic artist and Vietnam War deserter who builds boats by hand, and their mother, Falon, is an activist-journalist who runs a community newspaper that gives equal voice to indigenous and white issues. But the boys' childhood dreamscape is shattered when, in an act of defiance seeking to protect the land from farther harm, a Penobscot teenager sets fire to a shuttered area paper mill on the eve of its reopening. The fire reveals a stark truth for the residents of the Penobscot Valley. For many, the mill is a lifeline, providing the working-class jobs they need to survive. Within the Penobscot Nation, however, the mill has brought only heartache, spewing toxic chemicals and wastewater products that poison the river's fish and plants. Call it criminal mischief or environmental justice, the fire sets loose a series of long-simmering grievances, ending in a cycle of violence that tears the community - and two families - apart and changes the trajectory of David's life.