This volume is the first novel in a sweeping epic that portrays the romance, adventure, glory, and suffering of the Mormon people from the beginning in the sacred grove in Palmyra, New York to the establishment of the great Mormon empire, which covered the territory of Utah and parts of California, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, and Hawaii. This monumental work commemorates the Mormon sesquicentennial - 150 years since the organization of the Church.

These Were the Valiant spans the early years from Kirtland, Ohio to the tragic expulsion of the Mormons from Jackson County, Missouri during the wintry days of November 1833 - a saga of romance and conflict, of triumph and tragedy, of love and hate - as lived by the valiant Mormon family Robinson, including John Robinson, a tall Mormon youth, and the beautiful look-alike rivals who vied for his love.

Moving from the tarring and feathering of Joseph Smith in Hiram, Ohio, over 1,000 miles of wagon trails and waterways to the wilds of western Missouri, to the humble Mormon settlements, to the brawling frontier town of Independence, to the harsh banks of the Missouri River where the Mormons were driven, this novel unfolds a searing panorama of peoples in conflict: The Mormons - hated, slandered, and persecuted by the inhabitants of a land the Lord had called "Zion"; the old settlers - alarmed, threatened, and enraged by waves of immigrants from the northern states who had different customs, despised slavery, and practiced a strange, new religion - the handsome non-Mormon Hank Brewer and his love for Lisa Larsen, the devout, unyielding Mormon maiden.