Nliksentem is the son of Coyote and the protagonist of the Thompson version of the widespread 'star-husband' or 'bungling host' story. Coveting his son's two wives, Coyote contrives to send the young man into the sky, causing a tree to grow beneath him or a bird to carry him upward until he is stranded in the upper world. There Nliksentem is taken in and married among the sky people; growing homesick, he is lowered back to the earth by his sky kin, recovers his wives, and turns his father's treachery back upon him. The narrative binds the human and celestial worlds and accounts for features of both.