The main focus of the book is the virtual decimation of the Navajo nation from the 1820s to the late 1860s. The complex role of whites in the subjugation of the Navajos is depicted through the portrait of Kit Carson--an illiterate trapper, soldier and scout who knew the Native Americans intimately, married two of them and, without blinking, participated in the Indians' slaughter. Carson's exploits are set against the backdrop of the unstoppable idea of manifest destiny. Shown as counterpoint to the progress of Carson and other whites is the fierce but doomed defense mounted by the Navajos over long decades, culminating in their final, desperate "stand" during 1863 at Canyon de Chelly.