The beautiful singer Suma Rainey leaves her home in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the musical big time in San Francisco. She leaves behind two men who have fought for her affections, one she remembers, the other she wants to forget. In the big city she finds what she's looking for--a place where she can play the music she writes that is rooted in her mother's Shoshone tradition. Her musical success grows with the band she joins until they find themselves in demand, not only in their city, but all over the country. The man she loved and lost finds her again, and their happiness is overshadowed only by dark memories from a distant past. Firmly established in the musical tradition of the West Coast, she searches for new paths on which to express her creative talents. The man she loves, guided by Shoshone gods, she is sure, travels by her side as they search for a new future together. Guided by spirits from the Wind River Mountains, her ancestral home, with her lover beside her, she finds her way at last to fulfillment.