When 15-year-old Colleen Reilly becomes a patient in Sherwood TB Sanitarium in December, 1945, she leaves behind a life of orderly transition from student to adulthood. At Sherwood, she finds that there are two kinds of people- those who play by the rules and those who rebel against them. She finds herself falling into the group who take chances in order to live rather than merely survive. Some choose to break taboos and racial barriers and take risks in the name of love. Another will literally do anything to enforce his view of the world when he has no right to do so. One with much talent will risk throwing it all away for a higher purpose. And others live as if there is no tomorrow because for all they know, that may be true. Each chooses a path to happiness or power he or she feels must be followed. 
Colleen and her new friends find tragedy and love, violence and criminality, as these competing needs gradually build and then meet head on during a fateful Halloween night. Its aftermath sweeps Colleen into a new life beyond Sherwood that she could never have predicted. 
Sherwood is three stories in one. It is a coming-of-age novel, a psychological study of selfless search for love and meaning, and an inquiry into the nature of truth and beauty. Colleen, Pete, Bret, Laura, Will and an enigmatic outsider known only as "The Handyman", form a cast of characters whose decisions and actions take place in the era of the TB sanitarium in post- World War 11 America, but the are as timeless as philosophy, religion, and man's quest for meaning.