As she grows through the first years of her life in the Catskill Mountains of New York, a peregrine falcon called Frightful interacts with various humans, including the boy who raised her, a falconer who rescues her, and several unscrupulous poachers, as well as with many animals that are part of the area's ecological balance.

After spending the winter in Ohio, Sadie Lapp returns home to Stoney Ridge where she again sees Gideon Smucker, who as loved her since childhood, and meets Will Stoltz, a college student working with peregrine falcons. When the hopes of these three lives intersect, life in Stoney Ridge may never be the same.