Fly fishing, hunting, lost and regained love, a young man coming-of-age and facing wartime duty are themes recurrent in From the Clear Waters. The Luke McCullough Stories tell of the deep conflicts underlying the stratum of quaint rural lifestyles; simple tales of universal truths and consequences set in a theater of wooded hills, trout-filled streams and family farmsteads. The stories, vignettes of a life seen through the eyes of Luke McCullough and others within his sphere, pay homage to the natural order of things; nature's order and its underlying influence on courses of events; how it plays a role in one man's life in particular as the fulcrum upon which all else finds balance.