Eliza Sunshine is a powerful family saga following three generations of Cree women—Swan, Eliza, and Ella—and the storytelling tradition that connects them. When Eliza returns from her first year at residential school, she is traumatized, stick-thin, and silent with roughly shorn hair. Her grandmother (Nôhkom), Swan, takes her on healing walks through prairie grasses to harvest medicines, sharing stories of her own suffering when her traditional way of life collided with encroaching settlers. Swan's stories teach Eliza how to face unspeakable adversity. Decades later, Eliza's daughter, Ella, returns from her first year of university proudly wearing braids, bell bottoms, and a beaded headband. Eliza, who fought her whole life to escape the oppression of being Cree, is horrified that her daughter would so proudly proclaim her heritage. Following in her grandmother's footsteps, Eliza shares her own stories of adversity and her relentless pursuit of freedom with Ella. However, Ella's idea of freedom is different from her mother's. When tragedy strikes, Ella must decide how to build her life in the aftermath and how best to keep her family's stories alive in a world that wants to bury them.
