As this is her memoir, the author Joy Harjo is the protagonist of the narrative and the central focus throughout the book. While the book frequently jumps forward and backward through time, it generally follows her life and development from birth to adulthood, when she began writing poetry. Because the narrative is autobiographical, Harjo informs the reader of the thoughts and motivations behind every decision she makes. She also frequently reinterprets her motivations based on her perspective decades later. For example, when she endures her poet boyfriend’s drunken abuse on various occasions, she makes excuses at the time. Later, she reflects on her reluctance to leave him, writing that when she would take him back, she did not think of him as a monster, but instead as the man she fell in love with. The monster was only a temporary “bad dream.”

Harjo is a deeply spiritual person, to the point that she has dreams and visions of other people and other times that reflect back on her own life. These stories and visions frequently serve to warn her of danger or serve to heal her of her pains and torments.