Allan Thomas White, a soldier unable to cope with the atrocities of war becomes a deserter. Along the way on his flight to freedom, he encounters the smallest victims of war: children. Unable to merely abandon them, he strings them along on his journey until he can find a safe and suitable drop-off point. In war-torn Italy, that soon becomes unlikely and he decides to take them with him until he feels he can safely separate from the children. As his journey continues, he finds more displaced children whom he also cannot abandon. They soon total eighteen! Faced with a dilemma not of his choice, he must decide how to handle his growing brood. Read "The Shepherd" to discover the fate of the children and how he solves his problem of desertion which has come to the attention of the military's upper brass.