Cassie lives in a big hotel in upstate New York with her mother and father. In the summer the hotel is busy and fun, but in the off season Cassie is bored. She has one friend who lives on a nearby farm, called Tom. Tom's farm is a dairy farm, and every morning Cassie goes down with her trolley to collect a pail of milk for the hotel breakfasts. She makes waffles with a waffle iron, smothered in butter, maple syrup, and whipped cream from the dairy.
The hotel janitor is and old man called Gus. Cassie and Gus sit on the porch after breakfast; Gus smokes a corn cob pipe and drinks a steaming mug of coffee, and they chat. One morning, Cassie asks Gus about who lived in the area before the hotel was built, and Gus tells Cassie about the Algonquin Indians. Gus promises to take Cassie to see the place in the forest where the Indians used to live.
Cassie gets permission from he parents, and as the hotel is quiet, the make a pack lunch and set off. It is a warm early spring day, and they stop by the river for a rest and dangle their feet in the river. Gus teaches Cassie how to tickle for trout. He explains that if you are alone in the forest, this is an excellent way to get food, but as they already have a packed lunch, they agree to put the trout back, and watch it race off in the ice cold stream water together.
Eventually, they reach a clearing in the forest, which Gus says is where the original Algonquin village was. There isn't much left, as they lived in tepees, but they find some bones, and Cassie finds a necklace under a rock. The necklace is made from shells and polished blue semi-precious stones. Gus says it is OK for her to keep it.
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