Rancher Hank Rose loses his parents in a freak lightning storm on the Nevada desert three weeks before his Iroquois wife, Susan Sun, gives birth to their only child. Just as their daughter, Sunny, returns some joy to their lives, she is kidnapped at age four. Sunny suffers numbing mind-control and physical abuse for eight years before she is found, barely educated and terrified of a world she has never known, her only friend a German shepherd, named Paraíso. After she is rescued from a locked car during a California heat wave, Sunny reunites with her parents, who are naturally ecstatic to see her again. But as happy as they are, Sunny struggles to find her place in a life she barely remembers and Hank wrestles with a past he would rather forget. After Sunny finally chooses an austere path of religious service, her parents fear they have lost her again, but in the end, Sunny-without conscious intent-lays to rest old grievances of her father and her grandparents, and surprisingly, her kidnapper's pain as well.
Dancing in the Red Snow is the compelling tale of a girl's incredible journey through childhood with a vengeful abductor and the years after as she embarks on a daring path to healing.