Content Warning: This section discusses teen pregnancy, domestic abuse, sexual abuse of a child, racism, substance use disorder, and mental health conditions.

Hitchcock focuses on the lives of teenagers to foreground, and even amplify, the challenges people face in a changing world. The novel uses four young narrators of differing backgrounds to explore the diversity and struggles of youth in the harsh, rural environment of Alaska. The story is set in 1970, a period when the country reckoned with the transformation of its annexation to the United States. The prologue presents statehood as a key event that defines the characters' worlds as they grow up in an environment where Alaskan’s autonomy and land rights are challenged. These feelings of autonomy are mirrored in the struggles of the characters, each of whom faces the challenge of belonging and loss in a shifting environment.

Ruth recalls her childhood with nostalgic longing; her parents led a simple life, and her father provided their food through hunting. Ruth feels her father died defending their independence and hunting rights against a centralized government. She longs for both her father and her mother, who faced a mental health crisis shortly after his death and left for an abbey.