The story is set in central Europe 5300 years ago. It ranges from the northern Alps of Italy to the eastern lands along the Danube River to the earliest European Bronze Age Civilization, the Vinca. Otzi is the chieftain of a south Tyrollean late Stone Age tribe scrounging for a living in the high alps. To support his village and family he travels on foot to trade with the people on the north side of the mountains. He returns after a long trip to his village with a big backpack full of goods. But his wife Mara tells him that the wheat crop has failed. He and his son Anise must hunt to get through the winter.

As a youth he took a trip down the Danube to Vinca lands where he met his uncle and family who prospered raising goats, farming, and hunting. There he meets his first wife and must join the hunt for huge wild bison to win her. From the Vinca he learns the secret of smelting copper and is given small ore stones to help him find more. He brought his bride back up the Danube but she died during the birth of his son Anise.

Desperate to find a way to support his family after the failed wheat crop, he searched the neighborhood for copper ore but found none. A northerner agrees to get copper from Tuscany in the south in trade for goats. With the good ore he is able to make copper. But the shinny metal has never been seen before and the knowledge of it is regarded as evil, and results in a fight to save his life from the judgement of the shaman.