Many years ago, my wife Ava noted that I seemed to be obsessed with Molotschna (the former Mennonite colony in Russia) and the history of my family there; she suggested I write an historical novel about life there, set in the 1800s. This book is the end result of that suggestion: A good illustration of the old saying about being careful of what we wish for. Americans not familiar with Mennonites can enjoy the story as one particular illustration of how immigrants to this country developed over the course of a century until one farm boy in California was caught up in the unpredictable events of the Sixties.