As a child, Askik Mercredi, a Métis, attends the French-Canadian Catholic school in St. Boniface--an education that conflicts with the Native ways and beliefs that shape his home life. Later, in the world of colonial Montreal, where he hopes to fulfill his dream of becoming "a great man," he finds he is not welcomed by the white society he wishes to embrace. Out of place on the prairies and in the city, treated as an alien in both Native and francophonecommunities, severed from his own Métis culture--Askik seems destined to lead a solitary, meandering life, unattached to any community. But events on the prairies are leading to the Riel "Rebellion," and a series of coincidences result in a parallel upheaval in Askik's private history. "Tchipayuk" is a Cree word meaning "a soul condemned to wander the earth until its memory is honoured."