Paul Kingsley -- journalist, teacher, veteran, story-writer -- writes fiction about two wars three centuries apart from each other and their effects on the lives of ordinary people. He also joins a fight in the near-present against a destructive cult called the Scythians whose leaders believe they are involved in a movement that will reform the world. As well, the story features Kingley's editor -- Stephanie Markham, who has reasons of her own to battle the Scythians. Like Kingsley, she explores and wrestles with the nature of America and parts of the country's history. This is the first of five novels in a series called "Witnesses."