A young girl's world is falling apart. Her mother is deathly ill. Her over-bearing father lives in fear and has narrowed her world to the little farm they work in the Pale of Russia. Now rumors have come that the Czar has commanded the Cossacks to attack her little village. Only her frail mother's faith in an ancient legend, the Lamed-Vav, stands between Raizel and the total loss of all she loves. A simple tinker has come to the village. Could he be one of the mysterious Lamed-Vav? Could his simple acts of kindness, and his counter-intuitive wisdom be the village's salvation? And what of the strange new youth who has come to the village? Who is he, and why does he cause Raizel to feel things she has never before experienced? In this first in a series of stories, an old legend is introduced to help us face the challenges of our times. Our modern myth that people are only out for their own narrow interests, and that only strength and wealth prevails, is put to the test by an ancient myth of love and compassion being the true foundations of the world.