Growing up in Wyoming, ten-year-old Rose is happily at home out hunting birds with her family. However, when she rises to her older brother's dare and swallows the heart of a mourning dove while cleaning the day's take, she begins to worry that the heart in her belly will sprout into a fully formed dove. The burgeoning conviction that she is carrying a bird around in her stomach alters the entire experience of the hunt, and drives her to confront her fears about growing older and shedding her tomboy skin.
