A highly intelligent wartime aircraft gunner shot down in action over Germany marries his wartime rescuer, and they eventually produce a son. However, as both are in bad health because of their wartime experiences, they are unable to gain suitable employment. As loving parents knowing their time and financial limitations, they give him more than most parents, an education. His mother, a musician, teaches him everything she knows about music; his father teaches their son the essentials of life. His parents deteriorating health leaving him orphaned when he is only five years old. With his father's words of wisdom his only guidance, he is faced with the horrors of an orphanage or to run away. Unable to face the bullying of the older boys and unsympathetic views of a cruel headmaster, the five-year-old makes his choice. Troubles and misfortunes are ahead. However, with the memory of his father's motivation and attitude to life, the five-year-old survives for eight years before being discovered living alone in the woods. His father's advice and teachings were all the five-year-old needed to create a life of his own. This is a story of how that fight for survival determined his adult life and those he came in contact with.