The opening, accounts how a Union Army Lieutenant is put in charge of transporting gold from Wheeling, West Virginia to Philadelphia Pennsylvania so it will not fall into Confederate hands. Such a journey has a few highs but as it moves along through Northern towns. Living in poverty and having nobody who will stand up for them as a real parent, two young boys take fate in their hands go against all that is right and become victorious despite all odds. Facing the facts of what they had done and how it will probably end, they seal their own fate. Nearly half a century after the fact, a trio of men strike out in search of the reported treasure. Odds of their actually finding this needle in the hay stack is almost too great to calculate. By chance, fate, or as one considers, God's will. They hold the treasure briefly, until a tragedy heard around the world changes who holds the treasure. Searching for treasure without a real plan for it, everything is in one mans hand. Leading a life chosen by the rules taught in life, he attempts to pass along his morality and is rewarded by a long life complete with friends and family which each know him in their own special way.