A Portion of the Loveliness

Here are three linked but very different stories. In the first, a reluctant seaman apprentice is demoralized by his participation in the Vietnam War. In the second, an all-consuming spiritual adventure ends on a tiny atoll in the Pacific. Lastly, at a struggling retreat center in an idyllic North Carolina mountain cove, the destinies of the children and adults are interwoven in ways that none of them fully realize.