A LIFE DEFINING CHOICE - It is the early 1900s, and young Alec has a choice to make. He can live out his life as a corn or cotton farmer, like so many others along the bayous of Southern Louisiana, or he can take the huge risk of following his dreams.Inspired by his larger than life grandfather -- both an influential preacher and a very prosperous businessman -- Alec recognizes that he, too, is destined for an extraordinary life. He jumps on a train in the pre-dawn hours and heads to Port Arthur, Texas, where, at the age of 17, he becomes a merchant marine on a ship that travels back and forth to war-ravaged Belgium, and later on, to Mexico, where he has a close encounter with death. He eventually settles down- but is it with the vivacious French girl whose wealthy plantation owner father has warned Alec he will never be worthy of her, or is it with the gentle young woman in Belgium who is more than ready to give him her heart?Follow Alec and his young wife as they tap into the adventure and prosperity of the "roaring twenties" and then, after a life-defining moment, decide to embark on the greatest adventure of all, that will affect generations to come.Prelude is the prequel to Patrick Carter's previous books, The Raging River and The Sound of Thunder. Even though it reads like fiction, it is based on the early life of Patrick's father and is about 80% true.