Mary Goodale is an innovator and owner of a very lucrative horse and carriage business on the world-famous Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri. She started her business on Thanksgiving night in 1979 and she was living her dream. Suddenly, Mary had a competitor named M.J. L'Donna.

L'Donna vowed from the very beginning to have the only carriage company on the plaza. Many had other plans. Year after year, this M.J. L'Donna made it her daily mission to get rid of us, by any means possible. She made us so angry that my husband, Michael, had to stop me a couple of times from beating her in front of everyone. Michael always said, "she wants you to hit her so she can sue us".

Every day we wondered what M.J. L'Donna was going to do next. We didn't know how much more we could take. Every day we would pray for safety and for someone else to own our carriage ride service.