The greatest trials during the Revolution were the massacres and the captives. Tripolitsa, Chios, Naoussa, Kasos, Psara, and Messolonghi were sites of mass extermination of civilians and the capture of others.

Men were usually executed immediately – except for a few who could be exchanged or obtained for ransom – while women and children were led to slave markets. Their sale was a lucrative business, the profits of which financed the war. The Turkish pashas and Ibrahim captured and held thousands of individuals as slaves or sold them at slave markets, mainly women and children.

Starting in 1827, the desperate effort to liberate the captives began, with relatives searching for them, culminating during Kapodistrias's era. The book includes requests for assistance and various documents addressed to the Greek authorities and primarily to the Governor, in order to facilitate the release and repatriation of the captives.

The accounts from relatives contain harrowing information about their capture and transport to Egypt, Albania, or Macedonia, as well as to remote areas of the Ottoman Empire. They are usually sought after by their mothers or other relatives, who express their willingness to endure the hardships of a long journey to find their children or siblings.

Similarly, some Ottomans seek the help of Kapodistrias to find their relatives who had remained in Greece. The result of years of research, the book highlights one of the most tragic aspects of the Revolution: the fate of thousands of captives and the desperate efforts of their relatives to locate and free them.