Tafia has to overcome her fear of trains to help her father survive in the dead of winter.
Ralph (aka Rabbit), a young orphan from the city, is aloof and unfriendly when he arrives in Spirit Bay. But the kind Cheemo discovers that the boy's false bravado stems from fear of rejection he has experienced in many foster homes. Cheemo convinces Ralph on a fishing trip that he is with his own people and at home.
Rabbit finds out that his foster mother, Annie, is pregnant, and he runs away for fear he will be ignored.
Elton uses his money to get spare parts for his bike from elder Teawash, and by doing so learns a valuable lesson in the town's bike race.
Lenore writes a story that could win her a scholarship in the city, but her father is reluctant to let her enter it in a contest.
The kids find a native skeleton on an island. When a museum comes and take the bones to Thunder Bay the community is outraged; however, they find a way to bring them back for a proper ceremonial burial.
Hack's uncle Cole, a former WHA hockey pro, comes back to Spirit Bay to try to weasel him out of his father's medicine bag so he can sell it to collectors.
Rabbit literally pulls his weight when he helps out a pilot whose plane has crashed back in the snowy bush.
Mavis and her cousin Mary want to write an article about an old Indian recipe, but end up fighting with one another in their canoe while a dangerous forest fire lingers nearby.
Spirit Bay's broomball team gets stranded in a blizzard and Rose has to use her survival know-how to save the kids.
Tafia is taken to Toronto where she learns the importance of the annual pow wow festival.
Tafia learns the value of true art from her elders.
Cheemo, the fisherman, must pay $1500 by the end of the week, or lose his boat. Teawash, the wise old woman, warns him and his helpers to remember to leave something for the Memagwasis- the little people. The boys ridicule Teawash, and later scoff when Cheemo gives back fish to the spirit of the lake.