Chapter 1 — The Summer of the Beautiful White Horse

The story is about two poor Armenian cousins, Mourad and Aram of the Garoghlanian tribe, who secretly ride a white horse that Mourad has taken from a farmer named John Byro. Despite belonging to a family famous for eleven centuries of honesty, the boys keep the horse for about two weeks before returning it, choosing their family's honour over their love of riding.

Mourad and Aram are cousins who belong to the Garoghlanian family, an Armenian tribe. At the time of the story, Mourad is thirteen years old and Aram is nine. Mourad is considered the craziest member of the tribe — the natural descendant of their uncle Khosrove — and has a special way with horses and animals. Aram is the narrator.

The Garoghlanian family is an Armenian tribe living in extreme poverty in California. They are most famous for their unbroken honesty, which the narrator says has lasted for something like eleven centuries — even from when the family was wealthy. Every member is proud first, honest next, and believes strongly in right and wrong. None of them would steal.

The white horse belongs to John Byro, an Assyrian farmer who had learned to speak Armenian out of loneliness. The horse had been stolen a month before the story's main events and cost Byro sixty dollars. Mourad took the horse without permission, and the story implies he had been riding it secretly before he brought Aram along.

The story leaves this open to interpretation. When Aram asks Mourad to delay the return, Mourad reacts with outrage — 'Are you inviting a member of the Garoghlanian family to steal?' — showing he considers keeping it any longer to be genuine theft. The encounter with John Byro, who recognises the horse but trusts the family's honesty, also brings the moral weight home. The boys return the horse the very next morning.

John Byro examines the horse's teeth and says 'tooth for tooth' it is identical to his stolen horse. However, because the Garoghlanian family's fame for honesty is well known to him, he chooses to trust his heart over his eyes. He calls it the twin of his horse and bids the boys good day without accusing them.

Mourad says he has a way with horses — a 'simple and honest understanding' with them. He can get a horse to behave and do what he wants. At the story's end he also claims to have a way with dogs, as the dogs at Byro's farm follow the boys around without barking when they return the horse.

Uncle Khosrove is an enormous man with the largest moustache in the San Joaquin Valley. He is famous for his furious temper and for cutting off any conversation with 'It is no harm; pay no attention to it.' He is considered the source of the 'crazy streak' in the tribe, of which Mourad is the natural descendant. In the story he dismisses John Byro's complaint about the stolen horse with the same phrase, and later tells Byro to be quiet when the horse is returned.

The central theme is the conflict between desire and an inherited code of honesty. The boys love horses intensely and enjoy the rides, yet their family's centuries-old reputation for honesty ultimately compels them to return the horse. The story also explores how character traits — the 'crazy streak' or the spirit of honesty — can skip generations and pass through a tribe independently of parentage.

They hide the horse in the barn of a deserted vineyard that had once belonged to a farmer named Fetvajian. The barn has some oats and dry alfalfa in it. They ride the horse from there each morning for two weeks before returning it to John Byro's vineyard.

John Byro tells Aram's mother that the horse is stronger than ever and better-tempered too. He thanks God for its return.

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