In November 1528 a group of Spanish soldiers are washed ashore in the Gulf of Mexico. The leader of the expedition was Cabeza de Vaca and he would spend eight years travelling across North America, enduring starvation and enslavement, to return to his home. Based on a true story, but effused with Haniel Long's poetry, this novella is comparable to Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet in its understanding of what men can do when they must do something or die. It is a testimony to mankind's ability to help each other. Also included is Long's Malinche, the story of a slave girl who served as Cortes's translator during his conquest of Mexico. Long's gifts as a poet bring a magical quality to the telling of this story. Malinche comes to embody the image of the ideal woman that all men carry in their hearts.