K'aalógii: The Butterfly Boy

During veterinary school, Katie Reynolds, a Navajo woman, develops feelings for Rory Evans, a white student not of her culture. Both individuals undergo personal growth and wade through massive amounts of self-doubt and cultural misunderstanding to remain together.

Katie develops an interest in veterinary medicine when she helps Dr. Colgrave, an extension veterinarian for the Navajo people find the connection between animals on the reservation and the death of tribal members. She accepts a seat at the veterinary college in California intending to return to Dinétah, the Navajo homeland, to serve her people. As her love for this bilagáana, this white man called Rory, develops, Katie must seek guidance through her Navajo traditions, her mother, Ruth, and ultimately from Rory himself. Rory needs to grow as well. He must shed the cultural naiveté typical of the masculine, "few words, big actions," culture. Rory's maturity accelerates when René, a handsome Basque, whose history and family security offers Katie the confidence she is seeking herself, becomes an attractive alternative suitor.

But, being educated away from her people, Katie's path of knowledge and learning inexorably draws her from her tribal roots. With Rory's unexpected love, her rigorous education, and exposure to a different culture, Katie realizes her carefully constructed world is disintegrating. To maintain both their sanities she must decide whether she will live in Rory's world or her own.