The Yanomami tribe of Venezuela and Brazil is the largest indigenous nation in the Americas. In the early seventies, anthropologist Kenneth Good traveled to Venezuela to study the people of the Yanomami for his doctorate degree. His plan was to observe them for fifteen months of fieldwork. Instead, he stayed for twelve years, was accepted into the tribe, and even married one of its members, a woman named Yarma, with whom he had three children.

This film is an intimate look into the daily culture of the Yamomami as seen through the eyes of an outsider who came to know them better than any other. Along with rare footage, Professor Good comments on the daily lives of these mild people who live communally in large houses, carry everything they own on their backs, and conduct nearly all of their activities in public.

Over the years the tribe has been decimated by a number of calamities: by diseases visitors introduced from the outside world or by illegal gold miners who either recklessly poison the water supply or inflict intentional violence upon them. This film brings the plight of the Yanomami into focus, while also repudiating their reputation as a fierce and violent people.

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