In a struggling Amish settlement on the harsh Colorado plain, Abbie Weaver refuses to concede defeat to hail, drought, and coyotes, even as families begin to give up and return east. The biggest challenge of all is the lack of a spiritual shepherd and regular worship. When Abbie discovers the root of a spiritual divide that runs through the settlement, she faces her own decisions about what she believes. She must choose between a quiet love in her cherished church, passion with a man determined to leave the church, or imagining her life with neither.

The leadership in an Old Order Amish community requires shunning friends and family whose only offense is to embrace the new Protestant practice of Sunday school among the Mennonites, but teaching Bible stories to children is one of Clara Kuhns' great joys. Clara's on the verge of saying yes to Andrew Raber's marriage proposal, but now he is flagrantly refusing to submit to the bishop's authority by owning a car. When the lot falls to Moses Beachy to become the new bishop, the community waits for him to take bold steps toward change. Clara and Andrew step together into a more progressive...

When Henry Edison turns up in Lancaster County to survey farm women about their domestic contributions during the 1930s, the last thing Amish housewife Gloria Grabill has time for is the government agent s unending questions. Gloria s hands are already full with a farm to run alongside her husband, a houseful of children, and an" English" neighbor, Minerva Swain, who has been trying Gloria s patience for forty years. Gloria s oldest daughter, Polly, wants nothing more than the traditional path of an Amish farmer s wife, but everything she does seems to push Thomas Coblentz further away. While...