When Clay-Boy's father fails to return home on Christmas Eve, Clay-Boy takes to the snowy Virginia hills in search of him, leaving his worried family to keep watch at the homestead. Along the way, he meets an irate deer, a threatening county sheriff, a congregation of African-American churchgoers, and two elderly women who happen to be bootleggers. The story of Clay-Boy's search for his father is told with warmth and intensity. Along with its prequel, Spencer's Mountain, The Homecoming was the inspiration for the popular television show The Waltons, which starred Richard Thomas, Ralph Waite, and Michael Learned, and ran for nine years between 1972 and 1981. Over fifty years after its publication, this novel still has the power to move and inspire.