The novel follows individual careers that converge at Fort Delivery during the days of the final Apache defeats, and backtracks whenever a new character appears. Thus as soon as Fort Delivery hears that Colonel Hiram Prescott is about to arrive, the narrator switches back to Batavia, New York and to a Civil War hospital in Washington, D.C.

to trace Prescott's history. Then Hiram meets Jessica Dryden and again Horgan backtracks to flesh out Jessica's history. Another feature of Horgan's style is his use of reverie to describe an actual occurrence. Kitty Mainwaring's lavish fantasy of seducing Matthew Hazard anticipates the actual seduction. In the case of deserter Private Cranshaw who dies a thousand deaths before suffering his actual punishment, the narrator ends the description of his horrendous daydream — he is branded on the hips with a "D" for deserter — by omnisciently revealing that this is...