Jennifer Talldeer is a young woman of multiple identities. To the outer world she is a private investigator with a degree in criminology. To her family she is Good Eagle Woman, a member of the Tzi-Sho gens. In her medicine ways she uses a third name, one which is "learned and not given," KestrelHunts-Alone. As Kestrel she can take flight and survey the world below with her spirit-animal self. There is the suggestion that "Kestrel" is her essential identity, the one she has won for herself. "Jennifer" indicates what she does, and "Good Eagle Woman" is simply a bridge between the two others.

Jennifer and her family are also a bit unusual because despite their Native American heritage (Osage on her father's side; Cherokee on her mother's) they have chosen to live in the "Heavy Eyebrows' world." They are not registered with any tribe. Her father works as...