The following version of this book was used to create this guide: Erdrich, Louise. Shadow Tag. HarperCollins, 2010.

In her novel Shadow Tag, Louise Erdrich employs both the third-person and first-person perspectives. Although the majority of the novel is written in the past tense, Erdrich utilizes the present tense in several moments of first-person narration.

Irene America lives in Minnesota with her husband—a successful artist named Gil—and her three children: Florian, Riel, and Stoney. Irene keeps two different diaries. She writes the true account of her life and marriage in a blue notebook that she stores in a safe-deposit box. At home, she keeps a red diary whose contents she suspects her husband reads.

Gil has found commercial success through his many paintings of Irene. He is obsessed with his wife and believes that she has had an affair. He is stern, controlling, and sometimes violent with his children. Gil and Irene often argue and angrily discuss their relationship. Irene writes in the red diary that she fell out of love with Gil after the birth of Stoney; Gil suspects that he was not attentive enough during the birth.

Riel focuses on connecting with her Native American heritage and, eventually, rebuffing her father’s violence. After striking Riel, Gil buys an expensive gift for each of his family members. He hires a friend, May, to paint Stoney’s ceiling. Irene and May have coffee together, and May reveals to Irene that they share a father. Irene begs her half-sister to keep this secret from Gil.

Florian, Riel, and Stoney comfort one another when their parents fight. Florian is a gifted math student but displays a clear rebellious streak. One evening, Gil and Irene argue about the role of kitsch and commercialism in art. They connect the conversation to their relationship, and Irene reaffirms that she believes their marriage is unhealthy. Gil plans a surprise birthday for his wife. He asks May to have lunch with Irene and to follow her afterwards.

In the red diary, Irene writes that she has always been faithful to Gil. Privately, she considers her brief, passionate affair with a man named Germaine. At home, Gil injures Florian after he refuses to complete a book report. Irene takes a photograph of Florian’s bruise. She tells Gil that she wants to leave him and take the children. Gil agrees to see a therapist.

Riel, paranoid about an impending disaster, stores food and resources in preparation for an apocalyptic event. Gil reads Irene’s diary and believes that she has been faithful to him. On the day of Irene’s party, May takes her to lunch. Irene considers telling May that she plans on leaving Gil. At the party, May grows angry with Gil for asking her to follow Irene. Irene, in turn, is upset that May had colluded with Gil.

During a marriage counseling session, Gil and Irene viciously argue. Irene claims that Gil is not the true father of any of their children. She then admits that this is a joke. In the red diary, Irene writes false accounts of her affairs with three different men, each of which led to the birth of a child. Gil and Irene get drunk together and Gil begins a new portrait of her.

Irene visits May and tells her that she plans on leaving Gil. May encourages her to hire a lawyer and to stop drinking. Gil reads the red diary and believes Irene’s account of her affairs. While their parents are at a party, Florian and Riel drink and smoke together. Later, Irene finds Florian looking at Gil’s portraits of her online, many of which feature her in compromising positions. Gil cuts his palms and adds his bloody handprints to his newest portrait of Irene.

At another therapy session, Gil accuses Irene of having multiple affairs. He eventually guesses that Irene knows he has been reading her diary; at home, he accuses her of intentionally manipulating him.

Irene brings the children to May’s home and then delivers divorce papers to Gil. He refuses to sign the papers and proceeds to rape Irene. Gil locks himself in his studio and drinks copious amounts of alcohol.

Several weeks later, Gil is in treatment and Irene spends Christmas with her children. She discusses the difficulty of living without Gil, and expresses her continual, complex love for him. In the spring, the family goes on vacation to an island in Wisconsin. Gil swims far out into the water, and Irene attempts to rescue him. Both Gil and Irene drown, leaving the children alone.

In the final section, Riel reflects on her upbringing with May. She discusses her anger at Irene for attempting to save Gil instead of staying with her children. A lawyer arrives and gives Riel the key to her mother’s safe-deposit box. Riel considers the strange moments immediately after her parents’ deaths.