The young Marie, daughter of a Thuringian glassblower, violates all traditions after the death of mother and father. To feed herself and her sisters, she became the first female glassblower in the small town of Lauscha in 1890, and her artful glassy Christmas balls find themselves in America.
Bear drops into the swamps of Florida's Everglades, where at least 60 tourists need to be rescued each year. He trudges through the swamp and shows how to construct shelter, deal with razor-sharp sawgrass, get out of a muddy sinkhole, avoid alligators and rattlesnakes. He eats frogs and cooks a turtle Seminole-style.