This story involves a man who has moved his family to live on an island on the coast of North Carolina. He has taken over the island's only pharmacy at his wife's insistence. Her uncle has died, and he was the pharmacist and owner. She has always longed to raise their children there. The story is loosely based on the book of Job in that it begins with a wager. In the Hebrew text, the bet is between God and the adversary, over whether or not this man that God has shown to the adversary could survive unforeseen tumult.