The Innocent Trap is a story about a young, half Indian girl, named Shae Upshaw. It is a touching, sometimes humorous, exploration of a father/daughter relationship. Shae lives in a log cabin on the banks of the Cache River in northeastern Arkansas. Shae has been raised by her father and her daily contact is mostly with her father, her pony Sandy, and her pet king snake, Scar. When Shae turns thirteen, her world changes dramatically. The local minister wants to take Shae out of her deprived environment so that she can be raised as a lady. The new school director insists that Shae attend school every day. Most of all, the story is about a young girl that faces the mysteries of growing up without a mother to answer the questions. Shae becomes involved in what some people thought was a kidnapping and when she escapes she wanders for two days before finding her way home. Shae encounters problems at school and when her father becomes desperately ill she faces the choice of living in an orphanage or with Preacher Anderson's family. After weeks of loneliness, Shae runs away, to return to the cabin. In the process she almost freezes to death in the swamp before her father finds her.