This book is the transcribed memoirs of Dr. David Gochenour, a young Mennonite from a traditional farming family in the Shenandoah Valley at the beginning of the 20th century. He became the first in the family to leave Mennonitism, to get a college degree, to marry outside the faith, to travel abroad. But his marriage was wrecked by his wife's morphine addiction, and Dr. Gochenour left on six years of self-imposed exile in the American colonies of Alaska, Panama, and Philippines.