“There wasn’t enough fluid left in them to bleed” (5). This is the description of five men who stumble out of a mountain pass at the beginning of Chapter 1. Their faces are full of cactus spines. They have been lost for an indeterminate amount of time and are now walking, not for survival, but just to find a drink of water. The author describes their location in vague terms—they are south of the United States Air Force’s Barry Goldwater bombing range, having just left the Granite Mountains of southern Arizona. Through all of this cuts what is known as “The Devil’s Highway,” bisecting a region known as Desolation, which is a metaphor, but also a reality.

A brief history of Northward immigration from Mexico is given. The hostility of the land is reinforced by myth and legend. The Devil’s Highway is said to be haunted by white women carrying crosses, floating through the air, and the ghosts of Jesuits who were murdered after they came to convert the indigenous inhabitants of the desert.

The logistics of the Border Patrol are laid out, from the territory that they cover, to how they spend their days.