In September of 1953, Thomas Wazhashk works as a night watchman at the Turtle Mountain Jewel Bearing Plant. He writes letters while he works, both personal letters to his children, and letters to government officials and reporters in his role as the chairman for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Often, late at night, the ghost of a former boarding school classmate, Roderick, visits Thomas. Thomas soon learns about House Concurrent Resolution 108, referred to as the Termination Bill. The Termination Bill, introduced by Senator Arthur V. Watkins, aims to undo treaties signed between Native American Tribes and the United States government. If termination went into effect, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa would be forced to relocate, and all government services, including the entire Bureau of Indian Affairs, would stop. Thomas and other members of the tribe’s advisory committee make a plan to counter the bill, including collecting signatures on the reservation and organizing a coalition to testify against the bill before congress in Washington, D.C.
Patrice “Pixie” Paranteau also works at the Jewel Bearing Plant, making the bearings themselves, which will be used in watches and Department of Defense weapons. Her sister, Vera, has recently gone missing after moving to Minneapolis. Her father is a person with alcoholism and, when he is home, his drunken outbursts torment and terrorize Patrice along with her mother, Zhaanat, and her brother, Pokey. Pokey has started boxing lessons with Lloyd Barnes, who has unrequited feelings for Patrice. Lloyd often shows up at the Paranteau house, hoping he’ll find an opportunity to talk to Patrice.
When the Paranteau family holds a ceremony to try and find out where Vera is, Zhaanat’s cousin Gerald, a jiisikid, tells them that Vera is still alive. Patrice decides to travel to Minneapolis to look for her. On the train there, she runs into Wood Mountain, another boxer who trains with Lloyd Barnes. Wood Mountain is on his way to a fight in Fargo, and he tells Patrice that if she wants to find Vera, then when she gets to Minneapolis, she should look for “the scum.”
When Patrice arrives in Minneapolis, an unmarked taxi stops for her. The driver ushers her inside, and when she gives him an address, he takes her to another place, which looks like a bar, called Log Jam 26. The driver and another man drag her inside. As they accost her, a third man, Jack Malloy, intervenes and tells Patrice that he’ll help her. He then takes Patrice to the addresses she has for Vera. At the first, a dog emits a deathly whimper from behind the door. At the second, Jack seems visibly shaken. At the third place, Patrice finds Bernadette Blue, Wood Mountain’s half-sister, who says she doesn’t know where Vera is, but she has Vera’s baby, and Patrice needs to take him. Patrice says she’ll return later, and Jack takes Patrice back to Log Jam 26. He tells her that she can stay in the dressing room if she agrees to be the “waterjack” and perform in the club for $50 a night. With no better options available, and enticed by the money, Patrice agrees.
After doing a few performances, though, Patrice learns that the waterjack costume is poisonous—apparently, the first waterjack performer died, and the second performer is on her last legs. Wood Mountain’s fight in Fargo is canceled, and he also decides to go to Minneapolis to make sure Patrice is okay. He goes to Bernadette Blue’s house and finds out that Patrice has been with Jack Malloy. From there, he goes to Log Jam 26 and sees Patrice performing as the waterjack. He leaves a note for her, saying he’ll be in the hotel next door and that she should leave that night. Patrice leaves the dressing room in the middle of the night and sees Jack in the hallway, apparently in the middle of an overdose. She goes to Wood Mountain’s hotel, and the next morning, the two of them go to Bernadette Blue’s house to retrieve Vera’s baby and then return home.
Sometime later, the Turtle Mountain advisory committee holds a meeting in Fargo to try and raise awareness about the Termination Bill. At the end of the meeting, they hold a vote, in which zero people vote to support the bill and 47 people vote against it. Thomas approaches Lloyd Barnes about holding a fight between Wood Mountain and Joe “Wobble” Wobleszynski as a fundraiser to help support a delegation to travel to Washington, D.C. and testify against the bill in congress. All parties involved eventually agree, and the fight that ensues is well-attended, but for Wood Mountain and Joe Wobble, it’s punishing and brutal. It’s the last boxing match that either of them ever fights.
When they’re back home, Wood Mountain acts fatherly toward Vera’s baby. Patrice calls the baby Gwiiwizens, or Little Boy, to not get too attached, but Wood Mountain gives him the temporary name of Archille, his father’s name. Patrice and Wood Mountain begin a romantic relationship, and while Patrice enjoys it, she still feels like something isn’t quite right. She and her mother begin to have the same dreams, in which they see Vera, alive but struggling. One day, while Patrice and Pokey are hunting in the woods, they look through the window of an old cabin on their property and see someone slumped in the bed. It turns out to be their father, who has died there.
At this time, Vera has been kidnapped and trafficked to a ship where sailors use her body for sex. She has become addicted to drugs, and as she goes through brutal withdrawal, men from the ship take her and dump her body in an alley. A retired Army medic named Harry Roy finds her and takes her back home to nurse her back to health. He then brings her back to the Paranteau house, where she is reunited with her family and her son. She and Wood Mountain begin a romantic relationship, and Patrice senses that this is right, better than if she and Wood Mountain ended up together.
After the success of the fundraiser, Thomas organizes the delegation to travel to Washington, D.C. to testify against the bill. In the testimony, they argue against immediate termination, while Arthur Watkins argues for it. Thomas does everything in his power to try and turn Watkins against the plan, including flattering him, even though Thomas finds Watkins contemptible. On the way home, Thomas suffers a stroke. He ultimately recovers, though, and returns to work at the Jewel Bearing Plant. In a closing note, Erdrich writes that the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa succeeded in standing up against termination.
