Tom Bird is a half-white, half-Indigenous owner of a ranch in Texas. One day, an old rival, Starlight of the Comanche nation, appears at Tom's doorstep with other Comanche people. Because Tom doesn't want to speak to them, suffering from liver sickness, he sends his great-nephew to ask what they want. After informing him that he is kin to Tom Bird, Starlight recounts the battles he and Tom Bird fought against one another. Their first encounter happened after the Comanche people were expelled from Texan land, though they didn't give up the land freely. In a long struggle of raids between Comanche and Texan people, many lives were lost, including 11 of Starlight's fellow soldiers. Eventually, the Comanche were displaced and lost their land in Texas.

Starlight has returned to Tom Bird to seek reparations. Tom Bird has two buffalo from which the Comanche and Tom Bird's native ancestors survived. Now that displacement and colonization have succeeded, the buffalo population runs so low that Native Americans who once thrived off of buffalo now rarely encounter one in their lifetimes. Starlight wants the buffalo for a traditional hunt so that his people can experience their history. Tom Bird begrudgingly hands over the buffalo, recognizing its cultural importance to their ancestors and grieving the lost world that colonizers took away.