This is the second book in the Lands of our Ancestors historical novel series, which follows three generations of a Chumash Indian family in California as they try to survive wave upon wave of colonization. Kilik, Tuhuy and the other Native American children have escaped from a harsh Spanish colonial mission in California in the early 1800s where they were made to work for the padres and soldiers. They find the village of other Native Americans who have escaped other missions and become part of that community. As they grow and mature, they have children of their own. Together they must face a new set of adversaries, the Mexican Rancheros who have received massive land grants to establish huge cattle ranches and Mexican soldiers that force Native Americans to work on those ranches.