Born the son of a prophet in 1876, Joseph Fielding Smith's life spanned one of the most dynamic times in the history of the world. While his devoted father and mother were exiled to Hawaii, seven-year-old Joseph was left alone for several years to mature. A historian for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at age 25, Joseph defended the faith as a scholar and prolific writer over the next 70 years. Through his lifelong commitment as theologian, apostle, and Prophet of God, he helped the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints grow to be a worldwide religion.

A scientist builds a machine that will enable him to travel back and forth in time, but when he puts it in motion, he gets more than he bargained for.

A grim incident from American pioneer history is recreated as a determined group of settlers, facing almost insurmountable odds, struggles to reach California in 1846. Already divided by internal dissension over the choice of a leader and the selection of a route, the wagon train is soon decimated by Indian raids, a scarcity of food and water, and the unrelenting forces of nature. Finally after months of hardship, the party reaches the High Sierras, only to be stranded in the middle of the pass by an early snowstorm. And as fear of an agonizing death from starvation forces the abandonment of conventional rules of human behavior, the pioneers face a new enemy - each other.