"Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else tomorrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another." - by Ralph Waldo Emerson In the 21st century, Tracy Michaels accidentally stumbled down a steep hill and discovered an ancient artifact written in a Native American dialect. Tracy brought the relic to his long-time friend, John Wisebear Spangler. By this discovery, their lives are dramatically altered when a fourteen year quest for the truth of their ancestry in the 18th century begins. Angus McNuley, an enigmatic character in 18th century England, and Sir Percival Slater begin a dire circumstance which lasted for three generations of the Nuley family. is how one man's love was tragically thwarted by one man's bitterness and the effects of Manifest Destiny on the Native Americans. Joshua Nuley, in the second part of the novel, learns how his destiny was shaped by Angus McNuley and altered by Robert Slater.