The book opens on the wild border between Texas and Indian Territory, where 10-year-old girl has been released after four years of captivity. Kiowa raiders had killed her family and taken her hostage. The girl is entrusted to 71-year-old Jefferson Kyle Kidd, who is ordered to return her to Castroville, Texas, where her aunt and uncle live. Captain Kidd makes his living as a news reader, traveling between towns and charging a dime a head to read aloud from newspapers. Initially, Cpt. Kidd is at a loss as to how to deal with the girl's semi-wild state. She has been captive so long that she would prefer to stay with the Kiowa, and views her return to distant relatives as a kind of second kidnapping. She speaks no English, and one of Cpt. Kidd's early triumphs in their relationship is merely learning her name: Johanna. As they journey south, the Captain continues to read the news when they reach new towns, earning enough to sustain their forward progress. Cpt. Kidd is careful to avoid local stories, particularly about the rivalry between Edmund J. Davis and Andrew Jackson Hamilton because he knows it will only provoke arguments in his audience. Likewise, he is also careful on the road, taking great pains not to call attention to himself or Johanna. In Dallas, Cpt. Kidd is approached after his reading by a man named Almay, who had been following Kidd and Johanna since Wichita Springs. Almay is accompanied by two Caddo men, and he offers to buy Johanna. Knowing that Almay would only brutalize Johanna, Cpt. Kidd sets up a meeting for the next morning, and then flees during the night with Johanna. Almay and his Caddo henchmen eventually catch up with the Captain and Johanna. With Johanna's help, the Captain survives the gun fight, and eventually, they make their way to the suburb of Castroville where her aunt and uncle live. When Cpt. Kidd realizes that the couple are abusing Johanna, he kidnaps her for the last time, and raises her as his own daughter.
Influences
Jiles wrote that much of her account of Johanna's alienation is based on Scott Zesch's The Captured. The character of Captain Kidd is drawn from a friend's distant relation, Captain Adolphus Caesar Kydd Kidd made his first appearance in Jiles' 2010 novel The Color of Lightning. Jiles has spun off one of the characters from News of the World in her forthcoming novel Simon the Fiddler.
