The novel opens with the unnamed gunslinger trekking through a desert, which is “the apotheosis of all deserts, huge, standing to the sky for what looked like eternity in all directions” (3). The desert is mostly barren, except for the occasional tombstone or bunch of devil-grass, which “brought sweet dreams, nightmares, death” when inhaled while burning for warmth, or while chewed for its hallucinogenic yet demonic effects (3).

The gunslinger considers himself an “ordinary pilgrim,” and clarifies that he is not a “Manni Holy Man” or a “follower of the Man Jesus” (4). Much attention is given to the details of his guns, weapons that he inherited from his father, and which are always holstered to his sides and easily accessible. While the gunslinger walks through the desert, he comes across the remains of a campfire, signaling that the Man in Black, whom the gunslinger is chasing, has traversed this way recently. The gunslinger finds it odd that although he frequently comes across the Man in Black’s used campfires, he never finds any other trace of the Man in Black.