Bill’s dad teaches him to fight as a child. His dad is a drunk; his mother is unstable and abusive. She neglects him and his siblings and sends them to their father who has divorced her and remarried. The family goes by bus from New York to North Carolina where Bill prospers as a teenager, becomes a leader and gets a job. Then his dad abruptly goes back to New York, taking his sons along. Bill quits school, joins the army and there he hears a street preacher and yields his life to Christ. The first part ends as he witnesses to his brother, Ron.