Ceremony Summary

Tayo, a World War II veteran, returns to his home in the Laguna Pueblo reservation, struggling with the trauma of war and haunted by the ghosts of his past. He carries the burden of believing he had mistakenly shot his Uncle Josiah, witnessing his cousin Rocky's death, and guilt over a prayer he said during the war, which he thinks caused a six-year drought in his homeland. Living with the family that raised him, he confronts their grief over Rocky's loss and his continuing mourning over Josiah's death. His childhood friends, also war veterans, cope with their trauma through alcohol, their tales of valor only emphasizing the discrimination they face. At the edge of despair, his grandmother introduces him to Ku'oosh, a medicine man who tries to heal him with a traditional ceremony intended for warriors who have killed in battle.

Ku'oosh's ceremony triggers memories of Tayo's childhood, particularly the summer before he joined the army with Rocky. That season, Josiah fell for Night Swan, a Mexican woman who influenced him to buy a herd of Mexican cattle, which Tayo helped tend to. When a drought threatened the reservation, Tayo performed an impromptu rain ceremony at a spring, and the next day it rained. Despite this, Ku'oosh realizes his ceremony isn't effective enough for Tayo and sends him to another medicine man, Betonie, who is more familiar with the issues caused by the clash of Native American and white cultures. Betonie informs Tayo that they need to create and perform a new ceremony to counter the destruction caused by the white people.

Betonie sends Tayo back home, warning him that the ceremony isn't complete yet. On his way, he briefly falls back into his old friends' lifestyle before continuing his search for Josiah's cattle. His journey leads him to a woman named Ts'eh. He locates the cattle in a white man's pasture and is briefly arrested before being let off to hunt a mountain lion that had caught their attention. Ts'eh corrals the cattle and Tayo feels healed on bringing them back home. However, the drought continues, indicating the ceremony isn't complete. Tayo spends the summer with Ts'eh, but has to evade the police and Emo, who had been spreading rumors about him. He ends up in an abandoned uranium mine where he watches Harley being tortured to death by Emo and Pinkie. Tayo survives the night and returns to Ku'oosh, who acknowledges that the ceremony is completed and the drought ends. Tayo then goes back home.