In an alternate America shaped more by the ancestral magic and lore of Indigenous and immigrant groups rather than the ideas of Europeans, Elatsoe--whose friends call her Ellie--has the power to raise dead animal spirits, a power she mostly uses to bring back Kirby, her ghost dog. When her cousin dies in what seems a car accident, his ghost returns to tell Ellie he was actually murdered. Ellie must use her power to track down the killer.