Fifteen-year-old Maya makes every effort to take good care of her younger siblings while her mother works away from home. But when her younger brother Jackson is injured on her watch, Maya finds herself at a loss, lacking the guidance of the adults in her life. A series of devastating, life-altering events ensue, events that Maya and her family members must all begin to heal from.

Life experience and the wisdom of their Elders has taught Maya's parents, Nancy and Russell, that it is through difficulty and failure that we learn, and that the grief journey is a process. But Maya is young and vulnerable, mired in grief, guilt, and anger, despite her parents' attempts to help her. When she starts to engage with some troubled youth in the community, Nancy and Russell fear the worst.

Nonetheless, there is a reason Maya was given the spirit name "Dragonfly" at birth. Dragonflies gain colour on their wings as they mature. It doesn't happen overnight, and it certainly doesn't happen without pain and suffering.

Tragic, meditative, tender, and wise, The Colour of Dragonfly Wings tells the beginning of a young woman's journey to earn her colours.