Levi grows up in a large poor family in West Virginia. His dad has a violent temper, so Levi takes a beating for his brother at age sixteen, leading to a schism with his dad. He joins the army after Pearl Harbor, fights in Europe with Patton’s army and learns to forgive the Germans as the war ends. He is injured and hospitalized with blood poisoning, but recovers. Coming home, his dad still won’t talk to him. Levi and sister go to Cincinnati to school where another student takes him to a mission and Levi is saved. First part ends as he prepares to go home and tell his dad about Jesus.