Speare handles difficult cultural conflicts with sensitivity and tact. The story is told primarily from the perspective of Matt, a young white settler and a sympathetic character. As Matt begins to understand and appreciate Attean's culture, he realizes the enormity of the problems that the settlers are causing for Native Americans. The Native Americans do not have concepts of land ownership as the settlers do, but they have definitely marked hunting territories.

Because the Native American ways of staking out territory differ from the settlers' ways, the settlers simply ignore them. As the settlers take over their hunting grounds, the Native Americans must move further west, as Attean's people do at the end of the novel. Matt knows that he and his family are part of the influx of settlers responsible for driving away the Native Americans, but he does not know what to do about...