The Mayflower passengers and crew struggled to survive after their brutal trans-Atlantic crossing that ended November 1620 in Cape Cod Bay. They anchored two months late and four hundred miles off course, with food supplies nearly depleted and tensions onboard mounting. Shortly before the Mayflower anchored, the Pokanokets had watched in helpless horror as thousands of their people died in a pandemic. They were leery of Europeans who brought lethal diseases and took away their young to sell into slavery. The Cape Cod region Natives also worried about enemies to the west who mysteriously did not experience the deadly pandemic. Fear, suspicion, and desperation set the stage for the first encounters between the two cultures. The religious refugees aboard the ship had already fled England to avoid arrest, torture, and potential execution as heretics. After a decade in exile in Holland, all they wanted was a place to live according to the tenants of their faith, but the challenges they faced were as large as the ocean they’d just crossed. A storm nearly sank their ship. Severe winter weather and food shortages left half of them dead within their first three months in the new land. The future of both cultures depended on the negotiation skills of a few Native and English men. This historical fiction novel is based on real people, real events, and realistic conversations. Find out what your history teachers never told you about the beginnings of the United States of America.