This is the coming of age story of a young Navajo boy and his struggle to reconcile his Navajo culture with mainstream culture. His father, a Navajo code-talker, died in WWII when Quiet Boy was 5, and now he's considered the man of the family, so he thinks about his father a lot. The book reveals a lot about Navajo culture, and a friend's father tells the children stories of the code-talkers of WWII.