Homer Smith was twenty-four. He stood six foot two and his skin was a deep, warm black. There was laughter in him. After leaving the army he bought a secondhand station wagon, equipped it for sleeping and living, and set off to see the West. That was how he came to drive by the field where four German nuns were working. One was clearing an area of cultivated land, three more were building a fence. For some obscure reason Homer Smith stopped to help-- and that's where the drama began.
