Stones Stand, Waters Flow is a story of change and endurance. The Perkins farm, where the author spent his boyhood, stood as a silent monument to history. Hancock and Adams had fled there from Lexington, assisted in their escape by a widow, a minister, and a slave. The barn where they stabled their horses contained the horse and cow and farm implements of the author's childhood. Their flight path through the family's woods remained a logging trail and a favorite childhood playground. Perkins family lives were colored by history and enriched by legends of English, Scottish, Welsh, French, and Indian ancestors. The period from 1930 to1950 included also the stresses of economic depression, wartime, and a mother's breakdown, as the slow seasons of the past hastened toward the swift transformations of the future.