In old age, Mac Chorniak is burdened by the memory of a racist crime in his past. Through acts of penance both official and personal, Mac struggles to find redemption. As teenagers, in a drunken incident Mac Chorniak and his friends were responsible for the death of a young Indigenous man. Thanks to the prevailing prejudices of the 1950s, the boys received no punishment. Now the friends have grown old, and while most have settled into the routines, habits and politics of Duncan, their rural prairie town, Mac continues to live under the weight of guilt and regret. When Roseanna Desjarlais and her daughter Angela move to Duncan, and her son Glen works to reclaim land rights, old problems resurface and new intolerances are displayed among the town's establishment. And Duncan is unaware that Roseanna is the sister of the murdered youth, intending to exact revenge and make Mac pay.

"Secrets lie buried in Bone Coulee. And one secret above all haunts Mac Chorniak. Retired from farming, he's given up all but a small part of the farm to his son. But he's holding on to Bone Coulee. His wife dead, Mac now lives alone in town, and drinks too much coffee with his old buddies. On his own, he reads the poems of Taras Shevchenko, trying to find his Ukranian roots. But memory worries away at him. When Roseanna Desjarlais, an Aboriginal woman, moves to town with her daughter, Angela, some long-buried secrets will soon start to be uncovered"--P. [4] of cover.