Set in Mercer, Wisconsin, where tensions over Native American fishing rights are escalating, Jerkwater is told from three alternating points-of-view: Shawna Reynolds, a young Ojibwa woman who doesn't much care for white people to begin with, and who is quickly being pulled in a direction she may no longer have a desire to resist; Kay O'Brien, Shawna's 64-year-old, usually drunk, neighbor who is still grieving the loss of her husband; and Kay's son, Douglas, who now finds himself in charge of running the family's auto repair shop while dealing with his own feelings of guilt.