Prodigal Song

<p>Outlaw Joshua Manning becomes a fugitive when his companion shoots a young Christian missionary in a robbery attempt a few days before Christmas in 1905. Escaping he travels alone from Illinois to nearby Wisconsin taking shelter in a thicket of pine trees. As a bitterly cold snow storm stalls out over the Mississippi River Valley he falls asleep upon an icy bedroll by his fading campfire. Near death he dreams about his earlier life.</p><p>He remembers his grandmother and the farm hands who made up his family as a young child. When his grandmother dies he is sent to an orphanage. There he meets Luke and Russell who become his family when they leave the orphanage together. Outcasts they form a band of highway robbers but thieving never feels right to Joshua his grandmother's biblical teachings haunting him in his dreams. And his heart aches as memories of Samantha engulf him-Samantha in red velvet. Why did she marry another man when she was promised to him?</p><p>On Christmas Eve he awakens from a deep slumber a hundred years into the future hearing the cries of nine-year-old Tommy Barker. Fearing for the boy's safety Joshua takes him back to his family's farmhouse as the winter storm escalates. Tommy's mother thankful for the return of her son invites Joshua to share the holiday with their family.</p><p>Eventually the twenty-first century invades the proceedings and Joshua is forced to come to terms with his own humanity and spirituality. Together Joshua and Tommy unravel the mystery that is eternal life.</p>