It’s 1971, and Betsie Troyer’s peaceful and predictable life is about to
become anything but.
When their parents flee the Amish, nineteen-year-old Betsie and her
seventeen-year-old sister Sadie are distraught. Under the dubious guidance of
a doting aunt, the girls struggle to keep the secret, praying their parents
will return before anyone learns the truth—a truth that may end all hopes of
Betsie’s marriage to Charley Yoder.
Worse still, Betsie must learn a trade while she boards with a dysfunctional
Englisher family: Sheila, a twelve-year-old desperately searching for a friend
and in dire need of her mother; the free-spirited mother, who runs off to "find
herself" on the stage; the angry father whose structured life crumbles; and
Michael, a troubled college dropout nearly killed in the Kent State
Massacre.
Thrust into the English world, Betsie must grapple with the realities of war
and miniskirts, pot parties and police brutality, protests and desertion. Can
she help the Sullivan family and find peace in her new surroundings, or must she
forget the bargain she made and seek refuge back in Plain City with protective
and reliable Charley?
About the author
Stephanie Reed lives on the outskirts of Plain City, Ohio, site of a once-thriving Amish community. She gleans ideas for her novels from signs glimpsed along the byways of Ohio, as she did for her previous books, Across the Wide River and The Light Across the River.