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This work of religious fiction is set in the eleventh century BCE and narrates the upheavals for the people of Israel. David, the young man who has been prophesied to succeed Saul as king, is continually successful in battle. His victories for Israel impress David's adherents and enrage King Saul. The story is presented primarily through two families—one Philistine and one Israeli. The Philistine family includes two young women, Belah and Junia, who are the granddaughters of Gebar. The Israeli family includes two young men who are affiliated with King Saul and his military. Belah and Junia face horrors as they are forced from their home, kidnapped, and prepared for marriage and enslavement. Can loyalty, love, and faith save them?
This story holds up a mirror to nearly every era in human history. Economics, politics, family life, the exploitation of people to promote material and personal gains, and a sense in which disenfranchised people have value only to the degree to which they can be exploited by those in power are clearly exhibited amid other traditions and loyalties in the author’s narrative. The non-material situations of ethics, loyalty to families, and, overall, the courage to practice faith in a higher power are portrayed as not only stronger but as existing on a different plain. These positive attitudes will triumph over practices that can only satisfy their practitioners primarily through material acquisition, revenge, and physical satisfaction. The ultimate lesson of the book, which has been demonstrated repeatedly throughout history, is that humans must have faith in and care about one another. Ultimately, those who are without faith and defy the Higher Power will perish spiritually.