Jack Wilson, the author, is an orphan and grew up in foster homes. Although white, he was fascinated to learn about communal child rearing practices in Indian cultures, trying to understand his own upbringing in this light. He became increasingly obsessed with Indian culture, creating a version of himself inspired by what he learned, and imagining himself as “a solitary warrior on horseback, crossing miles of empty plains, in search of his family” (157). At school, he questioned all the negative stories told about Indians, claiming, on some vague family rumor and a lot of supposition, to be part Shilshomish Indian.

When Wilson joined the police, he still believed himself to be an Indian. He got to know the homeless Indians beneath the viaduct, especially Beautiful Mary, with whom he had a brief, incomplete sexual encounter. Wilson found her body after she was raped and murdered and left behind a dumpster. He was surprised and disappointed that the murder was never reported in the newspapers. When he chased up the incident with the homicide detective who took the case, the man dismissed it as low priority, assuming that another homeless Indian did it. Wilson eventually arrested a homeless white man for the crime, and the detective got a confession, but the man hanged himself in his cell before trial.