The UNITED STATES OF AMERICA faced incomprehensible horror one day shortly after the turn of the century. There was shock, destruction, and death. War loomed. Americans veered toward either hopelessness, fear, and hate or toward vision, faith, and rebuilding. They asked, "Could life in America ever be great again?" In the midst of these distressing times, Nate started his career. He left his home in Baltimore, Maryland to become a manager of the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California. It was there that criminals framed him for their theft of gold coins from the Expo. Nate fled the criminals and the corrupt police. Kelly fled the people who murdered her mother. When Nate and Kelly run into each other in a small town in Central California at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, their lives become entangled with each other and with the horrible realities of hatred and evil. They discover, as everyone does eventually, that the meaning of life is all about starting over.