Chuck Backus tells the story of his multi-faceted life as an engineer working on Westinghouse's nuclear rocket program, as a professor at Arizona State University becoming a world-renowned expert on solar energy, as the Provost at Arizona State University East establishing a new science-focused campus, and as a cattle rancher next to Arizona's Superstition Wilderness using his engineering background and science to improve the quality of his beef.

Chuck's story begins with his recollections of his family and early life in West Virginia, includes his Aunt Margie's history of the Backus family, and concludes with the achievement of his life-long dream of becoming a rancher.