Just outside the tiny Kansas town of Ulysses in 1903, a Mennonite woman gives birth to Agnes, a girl bearing a birthmark known as a Tieja Kjoaw--Tiger Scar. In the Molotschna Colony in the Ukraine, such a mark was said to herald either greatness or tragedy.

Over three generations, Agnes' family struggles for greatness. Her husband shaves his entire body in order to win back God's favor. A daughter says she was carried into the eye of a tornado on a clear winter's day. A son frees a truckload of cattle in an attempt to be a modern Moses. A granddaughter butchers a cat to save her marriage. A white tiger residing in her daughter's backyard claims to be Nora, the love of Agnes' life.