First Consonants
Brian Horace Moriarty grows up a normal child in the Seattle suburbs, save for his debilitating stutter. Brian endures prejudice and bullying but is unable to control his violent outbursts whenever frustrated at being unable to communicate with words. A priest to whom Brian is sent by his parents for spiritual counseling takes advantage of Brian's vulnerability in an incident that haunts Brian and complicates his view of himself and the speaking world. Angry with himself for having been a victim, he victimizes others in seeking revenge for his hurt. Eventually an elderly Brian moves to the Alaskan outback with the intent of writing a novel about a stutterer who saves the world. In a dramatic climax, the Tongass wilderness is set ablaze and Brian realizes, on the verge of his death, that his stutter was always a gift as well as a curse.