Miram Stoltzfus was once filled with wonderful dreams for a future with the man she'd loved since childhood until he moved away and married someone else, leaving her heart a bitter shell. Now Miram is known in her community as the "old maid" schoolteacher with a "heart of stone." Amos Hilty wasnts to court Miriam, but she's certain that he only wants a mother for his daugher and a wife for convenience. Her heart warms to a more interesting friendship in the form of Nick McCormick, a newspaper reporter outside her Amish faith, who is easy to talk to and, incredibly, makes her smile again. Will Miriam ever let go of her bitter spirit and surrender her will to God? Or will she leave the Amish faith and find what she longs for in the outside world?