Tanayia is alone in the world. Her village destroyed and her people murdered by a group of revolutionaries who now hold her hostage. A daring escape on the edge of Cochise's stronghold saves Tanayia's life, but she discovers her ordeal is only beginning.

Forced to live in a government run boarding school, Tanayia is stripped of her identity. The headmistress is bent on destroying Tay, but Jacob Five-Wounds stands in her way. Jacob urges Tay to run away with him—but diphtheria strikes the school. Now, Tanayia must make a choice, a choice she knows may cost her both, Jacob and his love.

"This well-researched novel is taunt with all the tensions and passions of any tale in which the characters are trapped. That Sister Enid eventually gets her comeuppance (and from a native doctor, too) is only just and satisfying, and an epilogue tells of both the compromises and the triumphs of Tay's marriage to Jacob Five-
Wounds (once a fellow inmate of the school." A-! ~ The McQuark Review