When a lightning bolt strikes the golf course near Don, it sends him into a coma from which he awakens in another time period. 1850 Charleston, S.C., a time when issues over slavery and tariffs were leading the South into 'Secession from the Union'. Gaining employment as a newspaper reporter and writing under the pseudo-name of 'the Harbinger', he utilizes his knowledge of what will happen to the Lowcountry as the result of the coming Civil War.

After seeking out his gg-grandfather, a plantation owner near Bluffton, S.C., he develops a strong relationship with the family but does not reveal the fact that he is from the future. Again, using his knowledge of coming events, he tries to warn his readers and his family of coming hurricanes, yellow fever pandemics, the 'generational effects of slavery' and WAR.

Knowing that the coming U.S. Naval blockade of southern ports will produce acute shortages of essential foods and home goods, he starts a new business of securing unclaimed imported goods from the Charleston docks and holding them for resale later at inflated prices. Also, knowing that Confederate money would become near worthless, he converted all his sales income into gold, silver, or U.S. currency. After many years, living in the antebellum period, he becomes the target of curious authorities who were suspicious of who 'the Harbinger' is and where does he get his information.

As the war progresses and Charleston is lying in ruins, he writes a 'Goodbye Letter' to his ancestral family and leaves them his accumulated fortune. He also discloses his true relationship with them, before awakening from the coma, returning to his 21st century family.