Dr. Meggie OÆConnor is a licensed practicing psychologist in a small Michigan town. She is firmly fixated in the belief that science will ultimately answer all the questions of the mind. However, her world belief system is shaken when she meets Winona, a South Dakota Lakota Sioux teaching the old customs to members of the Ojibuaway and Ottawa tribe, living on the Pesawbestown Reservation. Winona provides spiritual instruction to Meggie, who surprisingly grasps her teachings.

Upon WinonaÆs death, Meggie is gifted with her mentorÆs sacred pipe; an instrument that when used correctly can take the owner down the true spiritual path. Meggie also becomes involved with WinonaÆs former student, Hawk, who is now the teacher of the old ways. The last thing Hawk wants in life is to fall in love with an Anglo, a person who could never comprehend the road he has chosen to travel. When Rising Spirit, his ex-wife, comes to see him, Hawk feels he ought to give her, the personwho shares his cultural heritage a second chance. However, Hawk will never fully understand WinonaÆs true meanings of the spirit world until he stops stereotyping individuals residing on the mortal plane.

Priscilla Cogan paints an unbelievably realistic canvas of a segment of the Native American culture that encompasses more than just the spiritual world. Ms. CoganÆs novel describes the mindset and the problems confronting the old way teachers who must deal with tradition and an encroaching outside world that threatens mass annihilation through assimilation. The underlying theme of Compass of the Heart is simple: It is the soul and not the ethnic background that determines whether one can accept traditional ways that seem antiquated in the information age. Meggie and Hawk are a glorious couple, who struggle to find a path that both can lovingly walk together.