The Ways of the Flesh

In a fast-paced account, Schmidt yanks the covers from a gripping moral quagmire that descends on a tranquil farm family living on Friedliche Akers, aPeaceful Acresa in German, a farm adjacent to the Iowa Amana Colonies. In the mid-1960s, Doug Shumacher shepherds son Mick and daughter Carly to the Illinois State Fair where Carly shows her Black Angus steer, Virgo. While there, Doug becomes involved with an attractive reporter from The Chicago Tribune. To his surprise he wrestles with a moral dilemma that even dogs him on his return, having to decide whether to accept a love that his wife denies him. The problem compounds when he discovers that, in his absence, his wife Anastasia has engaged in a liaison with a transient photographer. As he sorts through these problems he learns he must face a fateful health situation. How Doug comes to grips with this imbroglio is the tale.