"Thistledown" is "Pilgrim's Progress" meets the "Age of Aquarius" meets "The Waltons." The story of a naive young man who meets, then loses a magical woman who transforms his life, "Thistledown" follows Fred Bradley from his childhood as an intellectual outcast in suburban Detroit, through his tumultuous years as a student at Michigan State University in the early '70's, to his adulthood as a husband and father, an itinerant preacher, and a reputed mage and murderer in rural Kentucky. Throughout Fred's journey, Amber, the magical friend of his childhood, reappears at moments of crisis.