Men from all over the state answer the call to arms that fatal April day in 1775. Young, unaggressive Jeremy Wheeler answers the call at Lexington and Concord and hears "the shot heard around the world." He battles a British officer for a girl from a Tory family, marries her and learns that the responsibilities of family are worth dying for. At Bunker Hill, Jeremy helps repel the British and is wounded
Part Two finds cousin Benjamin Wheeler staking out farmland for Jeremy and a friend in New Hampshire, where they help usher in the Industrial Revolution. Benjamin is rescued by an Indian girl, whom he weds. Fighting fire and ambush the Wheelers survive by joining the Industrial movement.
Part Three deals with the War of 1812 from the British and Canadian view. The families, Tory and Yankee, are united at the end after the inconclusive finish of the war.
Friendship, sorrow, war and love fill this story as in life.
