Who is this Jacob Cahill? Yes, he is the son of American missionaries to China, Paul and Rachel Cahill, but he is so much more. Spirited out of his home village at the age of three by his godmother after the death of his parents, he is entrusted to her son, Wu Chanming, and his fellow Buddhist monks, who care for the boy during tumultuous times as starvation and murder ravage Chinese society. The upheaval of Mao's revolution during the 1950s puts a premium on learning survival skills as the monks try to keep their freedom and teach the boy everything they know. But, as the monks learn quickly, it's not enough. The boy's capacity for learning is beyond what they can imagine, frightening one of the monks and leading to his Judas moment of betrayal. Jacob must run to survive.