At the conclusion of the Apache wars in 1886, it didn't matter that the majority of the Chiricahua had been living peacefully on a reservation. The entire tribe-four hundred and ninety-eight men, women, and children-had been sent to Florida as prisoners-of-war and held in captivity for twenty-six years under the jurisdiction of the War Department. Matthew Binday had been one of the many children involuntarily separated from their families and transported to the Indian Industrial School at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Like all the young Apaches who had been "civilized" at the American School, Matthew found himself in limbo between two cultures. The Americans considered Indians second class citizen. The Chiricahua believed their children had been corrupted by the white man's lies. However, Matthew is determined to use everything he learned at Carlisle to lead his people into the modern world. Only when his efforts to free the Chiricahua from government control are on the verge of realization does he confront the ultimate lesson. There is no justice for the Apache except the law of blood vengeance.