An elderly Navajo woman named Ayah reflects on her loss of her son Jimmie, who was killed while serving in the military. While still mourning Jimmie, Ayah loses her two young children, Danny and Ella, due to a misunderstanding with white doctors, who convince Ayah to sign their papers, legally allowing them to take Danny and Ella from her and enroll them in a boarding school— the type known to "kill the Indian." Ayah and her children try to run away, but Ayah’s husband, Chato, who is Navajo but understands English, explains that the children must go with the white doctors since Ayah signed the papers. Ayah scorns her husband, who was the one to teach her how to sign her name in English. In the present day, Ayah visits a bar in search of Chato and notes how all the men seem afraid of her. Their eyes remind her of the way her daughter stared at her after briefly returning home from her new school, where she and Danny learn how to assimilate into white culture. When Ayah finally finds her husband, he is slow and forgetful. Aya encourages him to rest, studies the sky, and tucks her husband in, singing a song from her childhood.