After his anger erupts into violence, Cole, in order to avoid going to prison, agrees to participate in a sentencing alternative based on the native American Circle Justice, and he is sent to a remote Alaskan Island where an encounter with a huge Spirit Bear changes his life.

Cole Matthews returns to civilization after his year of exile in the Alaskan wilderness and is ready to face high school, but when the school bullies begin to target his friend, Peter, Cole feels his rage once again coming to the surface and worries high school may prove harder to survive than the wilderness.

In two parallel stories, a fourteen-year-old boy who is NASA's first Junior Astronaut and a fourteen-year-old Masai herder in Kenya both edge into maturity while questioning their family traditions.

When, protected by the branches of one of the trees she loves to climb, Gabriela witnesses the destruction of her Mayan village and the murder of nearly all its inhabitants, she vows never to climb again until, after she and her traumatised sister find safety in a Mexican refugee camp, she realizes that only by climbing and facing their fears can she and her sister hope to have a future.