Amish woman Sara Lapp, all but shunned for studying with the English doctor to become a midwife, is shocked that, after months of waiting, her first call to tend a birth comes from self-appointed outcast Mad Adam Zuckerman. For his wife’s sake, Sara boldly tells Adam that he is killing Abby with so many babies so close, but Abby is already dead. Adam did not call Sara to tend the birth, but to give her his children. Though Sara knows Abby’s girls belong with their father, how can she leave them with a man who seems not to care for them? As much as she loves and wants the girls, she decides that she will only take them long enough to teach Adam to love them. As a child Adam heard the words, “I do this because I love you,” with his father’s every abuse. Adam is afraid to love his children, afraid that in doing so, he will hurt them. Without Abby to protect them, Adam must find someone else, and he can think of only one woman strong and brave enough, Spinster Sara Lapp.