especially at first sight, but it is lust at first sight. Elgin and Christine conceive Rayona in Tacoma, and they soon get married. Not able to have sex with Christine was taxing on Elgin, and he is gone most of the time, always in and out of Christine's life. She finally leaves and goes to the reservation. Christine finds out she had worn herself down with all the alcohol, and she only has six months to live. Christine gets weaker and can handle only one task a day. Dayton fixed her old car and Christine and Dayton decided to teach Rayona how to drive. One day while Dayton and Rayona are at a stud appointment for their horse, Father Tom appears at the house and drops off a bottle of pain pills, but leaves quickly after Christine starts to say that Aunt Ida had mentioned something about him. Dayton comes back and describes the trouble he had with his horse at the stud: the horses had fallen in love and did not want to be separated. That afternoon Christine gives Rayona her prize silver ring as a gesture of reconciliation. Ida Ida's aunt Clara arrives on the reservation to help with Annie, Ida's sick mother. Ida and her sister Pauline are excited to have a sophisticated city girl in the house. Clara gets pregnant with Lecon's baby (Lecon being Ida's father). Clara and Ida then move to a convent, and Ida promises to be the legal mother of Christine at the stunning age of 15. The nuns tell her to be called "Aunt Ida" instead of mother, since she and Christine are technically sisters. Clara visits a few times, threatening to take Christine and put her up for adoption, but Ida refuses every time. Several years later, Willard Pretty Dog, returns from the war. Willard was once the most attractive boy on the reservation, but is now rumored to be hideously deformed from combat injuries. Ida helps to take care of him, and then Ida gets pregnant with Willard's baby, with whom she names Lee. After Willard undergoes serious plastic surgery and is handsome as he was before, he tells his mother that "Ida may not be pretty or smart, but she was there for me when no one else was." Ida is heartbroken and breaks off the relationship between them. Ida lives her life with Christine and Lee, revealing