Shanndel Lynn had lived all her life in the white world. Secretly named Rain Singing by her Iroquois mother, she had nothing of her Indian heritage but that name. Then a group of Shawnee stopped in town to spend the winter, and when she glimpsed the handsome chief, Panther, she was instantly drawn to him. Donning her mother's beautiful old doeskin dress and moccasins, she knew she had to meet the dark stranger, for he had awakened her senses as no white man ever could.

When Panther first saw the Indian maiden, he thought she was a vision of his wife slain by the Iroquois chief Iron Nose. Once he realized she was real, and she was breathtaking, he longed to take her in his arms and caress her smooth, coppery skin. They were from different worlds--and enemy tribes--but as both Iron Nose and Shanndel's white father threatened to tear them apart, Panther knew that she might be the only one who could turn his tears of sorrow into signs of Savage Joy.