In 1904, a group of Catholic nuns took 40 Catholic orphans from the Foundling orphanage in New York to the Clifton-Morenci area of Arizona to be cared for by foster parents. Despite quite meticulous pre-planning and attention to detail, the nuns were unaware of the intricacies of the class structure and racial issues in the new locale and met with resistance and hostility from some sections of the local community. That is essentially the story of this book but Gordon uses it brilliantly as a vehicle for her extensive research into the class and racial systems of the western states of America at the turn of the century. It is a remarkable work of social history and her unusual blend of storytelling and information analysis is highly effective. The reproductions of archival text and photographs have been chosen to assist the reader to form an accurate picture of the time and place in question. A poignant story brilliantly told.