Indian warrior Nophate strives to maintain ancient and honorable customs among his people in the face of abuse and exploitation by whites in the early 20th century.

In its extraordinary range of character and culture, Almanac of the Dead is fiction on the grand scale. The acclaimed author of Ceremony has undertaken a weaving of ideas and lives, fate and history, passion and conquest in an attempt to re-create the moral history of the Americas, told from the point of view of the conquered, not the conquerors. --Publisher.

When danger to the sheep leaves no alternative, a young Navajo boy breaks his promise to his father and is rewarded for his courage and good judgment.