Five boys meet early in their lives and grow up under disparate circumstances. They form strong and lasting bonds and unite in a common faith in Christ. Challenged over and again through many trials, they develop their God-given abilities and use them to sustain one another in the storms yet to come. Wayne Warren's boyhood is one of oppression and violence at the hands of an alcoholic father. He survives the violence because of the fiercely protective love of his Aunt Winnie, who moved into her brother's home to raise Wayne after his mother died giving birth to Wayne. Aunt Winnie, a woman of strong faith, teaches her nephew that violence accomplishes nothing, but faith in Christ is great gain and the power of God is undefeatable. Timothy, an orphan among the world since his birth, spends the first years of his life in a children's home under the stern watchfulness of the home's director. Their personalities clash. Timothy escapes the impersonal existence at the children's home as a teen when Fred McDonough comes there in search of a boy willing to help him on the farm. Eventually, Timothy looks upon the McDonough's as surrogate parents, and their son Alan as a brother. Eventually, he joins the Army and leaves to fight in Vietnam, only to return with a deep burden upon his heart. He turns to the scriptures to find peace, and in the preaching of the gospel, he finds purpose. Alan, the beloved son of the McDonough's, Irish immigrant farmers, is a nervous and inquisitive boy who often gets into mischief, much to his father's displeasure. When Alan eventually learns that he is not the McDonough's natural child, he struggles with a sudden feeling of distance from the only parents he has ever known. Timothy and the other boys help Alan close that gap. Eric Williams, gangly and underweight as a boy, grows up in a more traditional home, loved, protected, and well provided for. He wants for little. Prior to his graduation from high school, Eric joins the Marines, much to the surprise of everyone, and goes off to war. He returns to a different world than he knew before, one less secure and less welcoming. He finds a path through the storms brewing around him, with the love and support of his wife Emma and his brothers in Christ. Troy Benham, a quiet and reserved professor, with an adventurer's heart, lives a sedate life as a child, relishing the time he spends with his friends fishing at the river and partaking of the baked treasures Aunt Winnie sends along with Wayne when he can steal away from his father's farm. Troy leaves his rural Missouri home for a time to test the waters of the world. While teaching at a university he meets Carolyn and eventually falls in love with her. They settle down in Troy's family home and look forward to a future together. When that future is threatened, Troy finds out just how strong the bond between brothers in Christ can be.