The setting is the beginning of an Amish settlement in colonial America in the forests of eastern Pennsylvania. There, a young Amish couple, Hans and Kate Zug, are in their ninth year of marriage, still waiting to have a child. Then, one April morning, Kate finds a Native infant, wrapped in deerskin and placed next to the spring where she went to fill her water bucket. Kate and Hans cherish Hester, despite the pointed question of Hanss mother zWhat...

"Hester, [a] ... Native American who was rescued as an infant by an Amish couple, now lives in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She shares a house with Bappie King, another Amish woman, living their independent lives in the fast-growing mid-18th-century city ... And then one day, Noah comes back: Noah, the first child born to Hans and Kate Zug, the Amish couple who had welcomed Hester during their childless years ... When Noah invites Hester to join...