"Some peoples call you misisahk. It means horsefly. You fly with the horses . . . you're small, with a big bite."
Raised on a ranch in Saskatchewan's rugged Thickwood Hills, where the prairie transitions to forest, Willomena Swift, home from playing for the Rockford Peaches of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, finds a precious foal killed by a rogue stallion.
The stallion's owner, once Willo's baseball coach, now chairs the committee heading up the new cooperative pasture—a pasture that is set to swallow her family lease, where she grew up, learned to love and understand horses, and dreamed of returning to raise them. Facing numerous challenges with both the stallion and his owner, Willo remembers her past years playing professional baseball as she struggles to realize her dreams in the present.
Amid romance and tragedy, Willo must find a way to stand on her own and assert her rightful place in her beloved Thickwood.