When the peregrine falcon, Frightful, is taken away from her mountain home by poachers, all she can think about is finding her way back to Sam Gribley, the human she thinks of as her mother. As the novel opens, the poachers are driving Frightful, hooded and tethered, several days’ journey from her home. When the men place her on a perch in a forest, she uses the sounds she hears to understand her surroundings since her eyes are covered with a hood. She hears a coyote kill the hawk on the perch next to her, and once the coyote leaves with its prey, she hears the voice of Alice, Sam’s sister. Alice cuts Frightful loose from her jesses and removes the hood so that Frightful can escape. As Frightful takes flight, she finds herself in unfamiliar territory, uncertain of how to find Sam. She is also unsure of how to hunt for food without Sam, who usually kicks up prey for her to catch in open fields. The next morning, Frightful spots Alice climbing a tree to retrieve a baby goshawk from its nest, and Sam soon appears on the ground beneath.