In April, 1866, at the height of the Black Hawk Wars, Mormon settlers in the village of Circleville, Utah, took a band of Paiute Indians hostage and murdered all of them, except four young children thought too young to bear witness. Sue Jensen Weeks' great-great-grandfather, James Tillman Sanford Allred, was one of those responsible. Her great-aunt later married one of the few Paiute survivors, David Monson.

How Desolate Our Home Bereft of Thee is Sue Jensen Weeks' resonant retelling of these events. Weaving together strands of family history, letters, diaries, eye-witness accounts, and reminiscences, Sue Jensen Weeks traces a path through the shadows and pain of one of the more significant events in the near annihilation of Native American peoples in Utah.