At Santa Fe, the musty pomp of fading Spain mingled with the acrid smell and gusty language of buffalo hunters, gringo traders, gamblers, elegant cabelleros, and crooked politicians plundering the new nation. It was a time when all lived dangerously, and Dona Tules Barcel more dangerously than all. Her whole life had been tumultuous. As a child she had known cold and hunger and witnessed the terror of Navaho raids. She dreamed of fine clothes and a rich marriage but realized the bitter hopelessness of the poor. She fell in love with a handsome stranger who snatched her away to the sinister excitement of a mountain gold camp. But here again terror and death touched her and she fled to Santa Fe where she became a market vendor and traded her favors to soldiers and politicians. But when a blue-eyed Yankee gave her a gold friendship ring, her luck began to turn and Dona Tules began her role as a notorious gambling queen. She became the governor's mistress and a power in the town where she once had been despised. Her gambling sala in Santa Fe was the rendezvous where conflicting forces of customs and traditions, old and new ideas challenged each other. THE WIND LEAVES NO SHADOW is a powerful story of love, hate, and jealousy, told against the authentic background of a growing, vigorous America.