Now I Surrender

The novel weaves together multiple narrative threads across the borderland of Apachería, where Sonora, Chihuahua, Arizona, and New Mexico meet. It alternates between a fictional 1836 rescue expedition, the author's memoir and family road trip through the Southwest, and historical accounts of the Apache Wars' final chapter, particularly the 1886 surrender of the Chiricahua Apache war shaman Geronimo. The Chiricahua called themselves Ndeé, meaning "the people," and chose to fight rather than assimilate into either the Mexican Republic or the United States.

Book I ("Janos") opens on the prairie of northern Chihuahua, where a woman runs across the plains stripping off her black clothing to blend with the vegetation. She is Camila, an orphan who married the elderly rancher Leopoldo Ezguerra in the border town of Janos and managed his ranch after his death. When Don Leopoldo's son Hector, a Massachusetts-educated agronomist, arrives with his Quaker wife Prudence and displaces Camila from any meaningful role, she stays out of loyalty and concern for the children, especially after Hector kills an unidentified Indian on his land and the cook flees, sensing retaliation.

Lieutenant Colonel José María Zuloaga, an irregular cavalry officer based in Buenaventura, receives orders to pursue Apaches who raided a ranch near Janos. He arrives in Casas Grandes and hosts a barbecue to recruit volunteers. Camila's aunt and uncle inform him she disappeared after the attack and was likely taken captive, transforming his mission into a genuine rescue.

In Janos, Zuloaga finds the town nearly empty, its garrison called to California. He befriends Elvira, an eccentric zarzuela (Spanish musical theater) singer who wears a nun's habit and carries a massive Colt revolver. Visiting the burned Ezguerra ranch, he examines Camila's room, noting a large bookcase and window, and concludes that a woman with a world inside her head will persevere. He conscripts Mauricio Corredor, an Indigenous Rarámuri (Tarahumara) boy of about 13, as his corporal. He also frees the Yaqui twins, Guadalupe and Victoria, Indigenous warriors imprisoned for years in an underground cell for killing criollo (Spanish-descended) ranchers in revenge for their cousin's murder. Elvira insists on joining the expedition.

The group tracks Camila's trail northward. The Yaqui twins prove expert trackers, finding her boots and corset and determining from hoofprints that she was snatched at full gallop, evidence she was taken as a captive wife rather than killed. Several recruits desert. In the waterless Valley of the Moon, the expedition encounters Robert McKnight, a Virginian outlaw-trader, who loans them his Apache brother-in-law Pisago Cabezón as a guide. McKnight warns that the Gileño Apaches are raising a cavalry and the Chiricahua Mountains are dangerous.

Meanwhile, Camila endures brutal captivity. Her captor, a giant warrior later identified as Mangas Coloradas, rides without stopping, denying her water and food. The warriors tie her by the neck to a tree in a way that would let her hang herself, but she survives the night, signaling acceptance of her fate. They force her to drink raw calf's blood and eat entrails until her body accepts the food. The main band leaves Camila with Goyahkla, an ugly, big-headed adolescent who guards her but gradually teaches her to hunt and survive. They exchange names: she says "Camila" and he replies "Goyahkla," pretending to yawn.

The expedition pushes through the Guadalupe Pass at full gallop, expecting ambush. In the Mogollon Mountains, Corredor reports sentinels watching from the peaks. At an abandoned watering hole, Elvira kills an Argentine detective who had been stalking them. Near the Gila Valley, the group is ambushed by 18 Gileño warriors. A voice from above demands "Chihuahua or Sonora?" and when Zuloaga identifies his men's origins, two Sonoran-born members are immediately shot dead. The Yaqui twins perform an acrobatic counterattack, killing five warriors before both are killed. El Márquez, a dancing master who speaks some Apache, falls wounded. Zuloaga negotiates a ceasefire.

Interspersed throughout are essayistic passages by the narrator, the author Álvaro Enrigue. A Mexican writer living in Harlem with his wife Inés and their children, Enrigue struggles with U.S. residency and Spanish citizenship applications. When his lawyer informs him he cannot leave the country, his wife suggests driving to Apachería instead. The narrator also provides historical essays: Geronimo's 1886 surrender statement, "Once I moved like the wind. Now I surrender to you and that is all"; a scene of the aged Geronimo at Fort Sill around 1907, dictating his memoirs; and the campaigns of Chiefs Victorio and Nana.

Book II ("Album") alternates diary entries from the family's road trip with historical vignettes. The family visits Fort Sill's Beef Creek Apache Cemetery, where the children create an offering at Geronimo's pyramid-shaped tomb. At Apache Pass, the narrator and his eldest son Cruz hike to the ruins of Fort Bowie and a cemetery where Geronimo's two-year-old son Little Robe is buried. Historical vignettes dramatize the 1886 capture. Lieutenant Charles B. Gatewood, a rheumatic Virginian the Chiricahua call "Long Nose," leaves Fort Bowie with two Apache scouts to find Geronimo. He is medically discharged but recalled by Captain Lawton, who realizes he needs Gatewood to succeed. General Nelson Miles imprisons his own staff to prevent leaks, secretly routing Lawton's column through Ánimas to Shakespeare, New Mexico, then by train to El Paso, placing the prisoners outside Arizona's jurisdiction.

Fragments of Elvira's monologue, addressed to a companion digging a grave, reveal that El Márquez's real name was Damián, a musician raised with an Apache wet nurse who spent years playing accordion for Apache camps, gaining their trust. A vignette reveals Doroteo the Younger, later known as Pancho Villa, met Geronimo as a boy when his mule-driver father worked for Gatewood's column. Lieutenant Estrada's deposition provides a Mexican officer's account of the surrender at Skeleton Canyon, where Miles falsely promises Geronimo a return to Arizona after two years in Florida. The promised two years became 23, lasting until Geronimo's death in 1909.

Book III ("Aria") braids all threads together. Camila, pregnant with Mangas Coloradas's child, sits peeling agave at the Bedonkohe ranchería, an Apache settlement near the Gila River. When Zuloaga appears, she warns him the women will kill him before his thumb reaches his pistol. She declares she is staying: Her child will be a warrior, and she wants the child to grow up Apache. She calls Goyahkla over, and when he emerges from the brush she shouts "Geronimo!", explaining she named him after the patron saint of translators and urges him to take it as his war name.

Camila narrates her violent acceptance into the community. Mangas's two existing wives beat her nearly to death upon her arrival. Mangas watched without intervening, then expelled both wives, killing their avenging brothers in single combat. His grandmother, a diyin (war shaman), nursed Camila back to health. When Camila finally emerged, she was offered a choice between roasted meat and raw liver with blood. She seized the liver, and the community erupted in celebration, scattering pollen over her and Mangas.

In parallel, at Fort Sam Houston in 1886, Helen "Ellie" McMillan, wife of young San Antonio lawyer Amyntor Blair McMillan, approaches the Chiricahua prisoners. Geronimo studies her face and tells her she reminds him of a woman from Chihuahua married to Mangas Coloradas, implying Camila. He takes Ellie's redheaded baby, whispers in Apache, and tosses the child into the air while both smile. At Skeleton Canyon, Naiche, a Chiricahua chief, lifts Gatewood onto his shoulders and carries him down the slope as the Chiricahuas watch from above. Gatewood describes a vision of Indians returning to Arizona, becoming officers, doctors, and senators. Naiche tells him to share this with Geronimo, but Gatewood says it is all over and rides toward New Mexico.

The family road trip concludes at the New Mexico-Colorado border. At the children's request, the narrator stops the station wagon. His children Cosme and Amelia plant their feet, raise their hands to their mouths, and shout: "There are still Apaches, Nana, and we remember your name," repeating the invocation for Cochise, Mangas, and Geronimo. The novel's final images intercut across time: Zuloaga departs with Corredor, who wants to go back and shoot Goyahkla, having seen his eyes go black with rage; Miles composes a mental letter to his wife about how he, Lawton, and Gatewood together saved Geronimo and were ruined in the process. The last image is Geronimo holding the redheaded baby, whispering in Apache. The land would endure, but the world had ended.