Everyone's life is a unique story which incorporates culture and memory to allow understanding of experience. In A Council of Dolls, three generations of narrators tell their stories, requiring the reader to interpret clues from the 1960s, 1930s, 1900s, and 2010 in order to understand the tragic events that have shaped this family. Their tragedies mirror the events of history: Sitting Bull, the Whitestone Hill Massacre, the children separated from their families and sent to Indian boarding schools, and by the final narration we understand how trauma has been passed through generations. Lillian states that she survived by learning to "clamp down on my heart until it freezes."

Elements of imagination and the supernatural are important. Each child has a doll who advises and protects her, somewhat like a spirit helper. Especially poignant is Winona's story, for after she is thrown on the fire at boarding school, only the black stone that is her heart survives. Using the metaphor of emptying a trunk filled with sacred objects from her childhood and permeated by her mother's Chanel No. 5 allows light to disperse the darkness of generations for Jesse. This is a powerful book which shows that healing can flow backward, breaking the chain of misery that is the past.

"I didn't know what that meant but was afraid to ask," states Kit, a nine year-old half Indian girl. Life is confusing to a child, especially one from whom adults keep relevant information. Gradually Kit uncovers the truth, confirming the readers' fears. Motherless, then fatherless, for Kit life is a puzzle that no one helps her solve. But thanks to her resilience, the words of her grandmother, and the comfort of the frontiersman, a symbol of protection carved by her father, she gathers and regathers her strength.

Cherokee Indian culture is interwoven with the adult white world which is mostly portrayed as cold and hypocritical, especially the church people whose smiles really mean "Do what I say or I'll make you sorry." Kit learns to be wary and often retreats to Never Never Land or her safe place at the boarding school, her closet.

The novel is a realistic look at the fears and bewilderment of an innocent child who must draw her own conclusions about whom to trust and what happened to her friend Bella and her father. A negative aspect of the book is that no one asks her if the "crime" actually occurred, which could have prevented further tragedy.