A young halfbreed grows to manhood in a modern-day Native American community on the Dakota prairie. The boy's search is for roots, for self-understanding, for the mysterious father who has always been so far, yet so near, and for survival on the dividing line between two often-antagonistic cultures. The novel focuses on a critical year when the boy is nearly eighteen and all the major conflicts in his life come to a violent climax.

Good Thunder is a panorama of real life in today's West—the rhythms of nature beside the great Missouri River, the ruthless exploitation of natural resources, and the raw vitality of life in a land where memories of Rosebud and Wounded Knee remain bitter.