The August 1883 eruptions of Krakatoa took place half a world away from North America's Dakota Territory. Yet, John Strobaw's explanation to his Lakota kinsmen of the atmospheric anomalies caused by those cataclysmic explosions secured his reputation as a shaman. That plus his strange black scalp dotted with strands of his mother's yellow hair, earned him the name Medicine Hair.

The Cut Hand saga continues as John and his mate, Matthew Brandt, struggle to bridge two worlds. Matthew, a full blood known as Shambling Bear, lives deeper inside his Native American culture than his lover. But, John's growing reputation as a medicine man and the historic events of the time draw Cut Hand's grandson away from the white man's world onto the plains occupied by the Sioux Nations.

Medicine Hair is a love story played out on a dangerous and ominous stage for the tribesmen, punctuated by the historic "exclamation point" of the Massacre at Wounded Knee.