A novel of the life and times of Billy the Kid, a legendary outlaw and gunman, and of the people who are drawn into his brief struggle to make a name for himself as a desperado.

Discusses the history of the southwestern region of the United States from the sixteenth century to the Mexican War, examining the interactions between the Spanish, Indians, and American pioneers.

Chronicles the history of the nineteenth-century Southwest, focusing on the destruction of the Navajo nation from the 1820s to the 1860s, and looking at the role of trapper, soldier, and scout Kit Carson in the removal and deaths of the Native Americans.