The intense midsummer sun beat down bright and hot. A long line of one hundred covered wagons stretched down the lonely, rural Midwest highway, slowly moving west. Every wagon is pulled by a pair of massive Belgium draft horses carrying one Amish family from Pennsylvania to new farmland in South Dakota. Twenty-five miles every day, six days per week.The wagons are shepherded west by a small team from by the US Department of Agriculture. Aaron Morgan, the team leader, is an aging Black Operations soldier recently released from three years in a veteran's hospital. After decades of fighting in many small conflicts around the world, he was physically and emotionally shattered. This journey is a test to see if he is well enough to function in a peaceful society.Many years ago, Aaron ran away from his family out of guilt from a terrible accident. He fell asleep with his infant son napping on his chest. When he awoke, he discovered that he had rolled onto his side and smothered the child. It was ruled an accident, but guilt drove him to sign everything over to his wife and toddler daughter and run away. He sought refuge by returning to the military and subjecting himself to punishing physical exercise until he became the perfectly fit soldier.After completing every difficult Army infantry school, Aaron was recruited by a government agency to support its off-the-record activities. Now following many years fighting in the deserts and jungles of the world, he is too old and used up for that life. They do not need him anymore. It is time he retired.His former commander's hobby is rehabilitating his old comrades. He finds them a government project to slowly assimilate into the civilian world. This is Aaron's one chance to remain free of the hospital. His doctors doubt that he is ready and expect him to go rogue, creating a bloody mess. His every move is monitored by the hospital for signs of uncontrollable anger or mental instability.Unknown to him, his assistant is Alice, the daughter he abandoned when she was 2 years old. Recruited in the hopes that she would help ease him back into the civilized world, she struggles to understand the father she never knew. The father whose absence threw her and her mother into a life of poverty. The father whose absence drove her mother to suicide as soon as Alice left for college.The story is about their slow journey west. Every day Aaron walks with the wagons always ready to resolve problems as they arise. Some people think the Amish are an easy target. Protesters delay them, horse thieves steal their animals, and a corrupt government contracting manager cheats them for the basic services they paid him for. Along the route they meet with the Ohio and Indiana Amish communities to exchange families.Aaron's location was accidentally revealed by a well-meaning news report. Now a Cuban Army Colonel is on his trail to repay a debt of honor. He has vowed to kill Aaron's family members due to Aaron's involvement in the death of his young wife. He is patiently waiting for the right moment.The leader of the Amish people struggles to keep control of the situation. His patience is tried by Amish teenagers and his niece's affection for a non-Amish policeman. His religion says he must resolve issues without confrontation, but the English (non-Amish) use this against him.Aaron eventually discovers the hidden identity of his assistant. When he tries to open the conversation her many years of anger, disappointment and sadness caused by her father's absence pour out. How can she overcome her deep-seated anger at this stranger? Since her mother's death, he is her only close family.Can Aaron complete his mission to escort the wagons to South Dakota before the hospital decides he is dangerous and needs to be permanently locked up in the hospital? Can he overcome his daughter's animosity to rebuild his shattered family?
