Emerson Wiens is, foremost, a story-teller. In this autobiographical novel, he describes the humorous, occasionally irreverent, episodes that made his child­hood interesting. It is the story of a family with German ancestry and a Mennonite faith, whose pacifistic views caused them to be viewed with suspicion during World War II. More specifically, it is the story of an adolescent boy growing up on a poor Kansas farm and attending a one-room school, discovering himself and the larger world around him. In his first person voice, he raises many questions.