In 1932, a site excavated near Clovis, New Mexico, yielded the bones of extinct animals in association with man-made, skillfully fluted stone points. With the development of radiocarbon dating in the late 1940s, it was determined that "Clovis man" had lived between 12,000 and 11,000 years ago. Finely flaked Clovis stone tools have been discovered throughout North America, suggesting an extraordinarily rapid spread - either of ideas and technology, or of people. Presumably Clovis men and women moved across the land, hunting large animals (mammoth, bison, saber-toothed tiger) with stone points hafted to spears, and collecting wild fruits, thistle leaves, yucca pods, roots, and nuts.

This film addresses a number of puzzles associated with the discovery of early man in America, in addition to the question of diffusion of ideas versus migration of people. What accounts for the rapid growth of Clovis culture across the continent, and for its rather quick demise: within a thousand years, American megafauna (except for bison) were extinct, and Clovis stone tool technology had been replaced by other forms. Does Clovis culture represent the earliest human occupation of this area, or did peoples perhaps 40,000 years ago leave less recognizable evidence of themselves? If bone tools preceded stone, how can scientists determine whether a broken piece of bone has been modified by man, and not simply crunched by a large bear? What can we learn from experimental archaeology: making stone tools, or butchering a bison with a Clovis-style knife? These and other questions are explored by several archaeologists involved in the search for evidence of the earliest Americans, from the Old Crow Basin in Alaska, to sites in Texas and Wyoming.