The Red Canoe

When Buck’s wife files for divorce, he considers suicide. He realizes, though, that he still has his boat-building hobby, and there’s a feral cat he wants to tame. There’s also a girl who appears at the end of his driveway. Like Buck, Lucy Walters is Ojibwe; they also share a deep feeling of pain. Lucy has lost everything except her father. He’s a cop, and when he’s not at their trailer, his colleagues sexually abuse the 15-year-old Lucy. The first one who raped her warned her not to tell her father, or they’d “take care” of him. Buck recognizes Lucy’s need to restore her identity, so he teaches her to build a canoe to help her journey to survival. His wife always said he needed a project, someone to save. This time, he and Lucy, along with a couple friends who are outsiders, work to take down the men who should be protecting them.