Several chapters in the first section are about the destruction of the Yahi by white settlers. The second part of the book begins with a history of the museum in San Francisco where Ishi was taken. It also tells how he got the name Ishi. At the museum, Alfred Kroeber and others arranged for weekly public demonstrations. Ishi would usually demonstrate stringing a bow, or making fire with a fire drill. Finally Ishi's friends had to arrange for Ishi to work as a janitor, so the University would pay to support him. In addition to Kroeber, Waterman and Pope, Ishi became friends with other Native American friends of the anthropologists, such as Juan Dolores, a Tohono O'odham Indian. Ishi spent much of his time at the museum making tools and weapons. He also went hunting with his friends. The last chapter of the book tells of Ishi becoming sick with tuberculosis in late 1914, and his death from the disease soon afterwards.