This thrilling adventure novel tells the story of a famous real-life massacre that occurred on a Ute reservation in Colorado in 1879, three years after the Custer disaster at Little Big Horn. The explosive situation between the Utes and the bullheaded Indian agent, Nathan Meeker, has been building up for some time because of Meeker's stubborn insistence that the Indians conform to the white man's way of life. Caught up in the middle of this conflict are two teenage boys, torn by their divided loyalties. Although Dave Madden and the Indian boy Tono have been close friends, they know that if the tribe revolts they must become enemies. The suspense mounts as Meeker continues to provoke the Indians, and the white men at the agency gradually become aware that they face almost certain destruction.