Can someone please explain the concept behind the make process for Linux kernels.

Many distros - among them Redhat, Fatdog, etc.., use a "tree" structure with a Makefile and some KConfig (for kernel config I assume) in each directory.

This means that if I navigate to a directory and type make somedriver.ko, it errors with:

make: *** No rule to make target 'somedriver.ko'. Stop.

My driver will have about a half dozen or so .c files and a .asm file. It's not large. I would like though, to simply use
the existing make process. How do the rules for the build get in there? What process did the designer of the
make process envision, and is this documented somewhere?

Thank you.