The protagonist of the novel is John Carter, a captain in the army of the Confederate States, and the time is 1866. After the defeat in the Civil War, Carter decides to head to Arizona to mine for gold. Following a skirmish with Native Americans who killed his friend, he is struck by a strange paralysis โ yet he did not die. Instead, having acquired a second body, he found himself on Mars. The novel goes on to describe the extraordinary adventures that befall John Carter on Mars. He faces mortal danger, encounters a beautiful Martian princess along his way, and leads the hordes of Mars's nomadic tribes to free his beloved from captivity.