In 1916, fourteen-year-old Alice Reardon and her eighteen-year-old sister Emmaline are orphans who have been raised by the priest and nuns at the Mission Miguel de Chihuahua near the tiny town of Columbus, New Mexico. The Mexican Civil War is raging, and for unknown reasons Pancho Villa's revolutionaries cross the border to burn down Columbus. Alice is polishing a hardware store's Ford delivery van in the mission's courtyard to earn ten cents. The store's owner is visiting Emmaline who Alice believes "is four times prettier and two times smarter than me." The raiders swarm the mission to search for food. A brutal colonel nicknamed the Golden One seizes Emmaline- a dazzling redhead- and hauls her onto the back of his horse. He and the other raiders flee back into Mexico. Alice knows no life apart from her sister Emmaline, her only family. without a plan, without even a hat, she walks south following the raiders' dust cloud into the Chihuahuan Desert. Outlaws and hustlers will test and torment Alice, and the pitiless desert will take its toll. But she is dogged and wily, and love for Emmaline will drive her to daring as she tries to save her sister.