A troubled Lenape Indian asks the Great Spirit for a vision. In Talking Coyote's vision, a giant who calls himself, the Keeper-of-the-animals, visits him. The Keeper tells him all the animals have been saved from mankind in the Old World the Native Americans left behind millennia ago, The Old World, man left behind to come to this world to live with their brothers and sisters the animals, birds and fish. The Keeper tells Talking Coyote that the Native peoples must come back to the Old World to help maintain balance."Grandfather's Song" is the story of the Jefferson and Cornplanter families and Talking Coyote's attempt to find his way to the Old World. Flashbacks to Lenape legends and ancient stories told around campfires tell him the path to take. Along the way he meets other Keepers and people who will help him with his vision. His success in bringing the Native people to the Old World broke up families and tribes along religious lines.
Those Native Americans and other ancient peoples who have converted to a religion other than that of their ancestors are left behind when Talking Coyote leads the people to the Old World.The Native peoples return to the Old World to live in the old ways the Great Spirit had taught their ancestors, to live and hunt among the animals, and to live a life of balance and harmony with nature. The indigenous people of the world find themselves free to live as their ancestors had once lived, governed only by their religion and their tribal members.