Robert F. Colesberry

A Manhattan psychiatrist, who thinks he's seen it all until he's assigned to analyze Prot, a psychiatric patient who claims to be from a distant planet called K-PAX. He is convinced that Prot is "a convincing delusional," but his cynicism turns to open-minded fascination as Prot's case reveals a combination of otherworldly insight and all-too-human trauma, prompting an earthbound explanation for Prot's allegedly alien origins.

In 1862, during the Kansas-Missouri border war, Jake and Jack Bull join the Confederate-sympathizing Bushwhackers after Jack's father is killed by marauding members of the abolitionist Jayhawkers. They are aided by unusual ally, Holt, who's fighting for the South despite being a former slave.