Sings Before Spears, more commonly referred to as Laughing Boy, is a young Navajo man living in the remote northern part of the Navajo territory. Lily, whose Navajo name is Slim Girl, was raised off the reservation by white people. She has forgotten most traditional Navajo ways and has gotten accustomed to the comforts of western society. She also has questionable morals, cavorting with men in order to have creature comforts, most notably with George Hartshorne, who showers her with gifts. Slim Girl, however, does not love Hartshorne. Laughing Boy and Lily meet at the Navajos' annual Great Sing Dance at T'si Lani in the Red Blue Country. Lily hopes to rejoin her native culture and once again become Slim Girl. Despite their antagonistic first encounter, Laughing Boy and Slim Girl fall in love and want to get married, against the protestations of his friends at the dance, who believe she would make an unsuitable wife because of her white ways. The road to the altar is not a smooth one owing to their differences. Although those differences are in part what attracts Laughing Boy to Slim Girl, they may ultimately tear them apart.
—Huggo