Little Deer is an Abenaki girl with a big responsibility. As keeper of the sacred corn, she tends the cornfield that provides her people with food through the long winter. One morning, she awakens to discover that thieves have plundered the field, stealing every last kernel of the sacred corn. Thus begins a time of scarcity and deprivation. When hunger forces her people to leave their homeland, Little Deer decides it is time to act. She sets off on a long journey, alone, to find the sacred corn and bring it home.