The Prologue describes an old Ojibwa, or Anishinaabe, man telling a story to his grandchildren in an unspecified time period, teaching them about the “ways of life” (v). The man describes the fight between two wolves inside him, one composed of negative emotions and behaviors, the other of positive ones. One child asks which wolf is stronger and will win, and the man says, “The one you feed” (v).

The protagonist, an Anishinaabe vampire named Pierre L’Errant, watches the Northern Lights through the window of a plane. He thinks about how often, and in how many countries, he has seen them. While white people call them the aurora borealis, he knows them by the name wawa-tei. To him, the lights are a good sign. On this flight, he has the row to himself; his former neighbor, an Irish Catholic woman named Irene Donovan, asked to move seats when she became disturbed by Pierre’s dark aura. Irene had intended to relax and watch a movie on the flight to Canada but she became perturbed by Pierre’s contagious sense of emotionlessness and loneliness. Pierre is not offended by her choice, as he prefers to be alone in the company of the northern lights.