Since the American Revolution, Valley Forge has been synonymous with suffering, hardship, and deprivation. In his own fresh style, Stillwell explores the Valley Forge in all of us - those secret personal battles and inner conflicts that cause us to question whether life is worth living.Brady Wilkins, on assignment for the Albuquerque Monarchs, finds the Nightstep family on the bleakest, desolate wasteland known as "The Checkerboard." Their home lies at the outskirts of the Navajo Nation, christened Valley Forge. Brady discovers potential baseball prodigy, Uriah Nightstep, wandering the desert, armed with three important virtues: a spirit true to his Navajo heritage, an almost insatiable desire to escape the rez's parasitic nature, and a 110 mph fastball.Lucinda, Uriah's mother, after years of living in squalor, in a mundane, hopeless existence, enacts a plan to forsake Valley Forge, and her family, in pursuit of genuine happiness beyond New Mexico. Roy Nightstep, a confused and misunderstood Vietnam vet whose one extended journey from the reservation, into war, has left him afflicted with delayed stress skulking inside his mind. While searching for his estranged partner, he finds a true soul mate to help overcome his inner demons. Goodbye, Valley Forge parallels the outcome following the winter of 1777, when destiny, fate and prayer brought triumph where once hopelessness and despondency prevailed.