Describes the social structure, daily life, religion, government relations, and history of the Apache people.

John Russell, disdained by his "respectable" fellow stagecoach passengers because he was raised by Native Americans, becomes their only hope for survival when they are set upon by outlaws.

Hondo Lane, a dispatch rider for the cavalry, encounters Angie Lowe, a woman living alone with her young son in the midst of hostile Apache territory. She presumes she is safe because the Apaches, under their chief Vittorio, have always left them alone. Later Hondo has a run-in with Angie's good-for-nothing husband and is forced to kill him. When Vittorio captures Hondo to save his life, Angie tells the Apache chief that he is her husband. In order...