With his father hospitalized in Addis Ababa, twelve-year-old Teffera takes charge of the family's farm and ailing sheep in rural Ethiopia. When a ferangiâ€"foreignerâ€"arrives in the village with medicine for healing the sheep, Teffera and his community at first distrust the friendly stranger's motives but then, through trial and soul searching, accept his solid advice. Set in the time of its publication, this now-historical novel gives significance to the quandaries that arise as scientific knowledge brought from resource-rich Western nations clashes with beliefs of cultures in so-called undeveloped nations. Midwesterner Bradley, working with an Ethiopian writer and U.S. Educational Adviser to Ethiopia, crafts a story with a message: It is possible to embrace the science of another country without losing what makes your own distinctive and strong.