Compass of the heart

"Love is very tricky," warns Winona Pathfinder, the elderly Sioux medicine woman who has introduced psychologist Meggie O'Connor to the spiritual ways of Lakota prayer and healing. Soon, however, Meggie's teacher and friend will cross over to the Other Side, leaving Meggie, just forty and newly divorced, to make her way on her own. But before she goes, Winona nudges her younger cousin Hawk to walk alongside Meggie on a journey of the heart and soul.

It is this story that is at the center of Compass of the Heart. All the while, Winona watches over them and their circle of friends and family. Children scar and heal, husbands betray pained wives, aged sisters ease into the late afternoon of their lives, and animals teach the human beings the true meaning of sacrifice.