Stumbling Toward Paradise weaves together three interrelated story lines that create a poignant tale of very young, floundering characters in South Dakota, as the Nineteenth Century races to a close. Devastated by his mother's death, Caleb Lee Manley, the son of a preacher from Yankton, attempts to follow his father's profession without the appropriate, supporting faith. He befriends three thieves, two males, one female, from Sioux City. All travel to the Black Hills where the friends become involved in cattle rustling on a very small scale and pull the preacher into their operation. On his journey to the Hills, Caleb acquires an assistant, Joel Cunningham, a farm boy from near Rapid City. They find themselves on opposite sides in Caleb's illogical feud with Matthew Heron, a tonic peddler, and his red-haired granddaughter, Samantha. Joel's story is one of maturation, for he grows to manhood before the reader's eyes.