For many years, Ilsa Redlich has helped her parents run a hotel in South Amana, but as the United States enters the Great War, she can feel her world changing. The residents of the towns surrounding the Amana Colonies used to be accepting of their quiet, peaceful neighbors, but with anti-German sentiment running high, the Amana villages are now plagued by vandalism, threats, and insults. Things get even worse when Ilsa finds out her family won't be...

Gretchen Kohler, an Amana storekeeper's daughter, keeps her passion for writing a secret, but she shares her stories with a young reporter, putting her job, her reputation, and the love of her childhood beau in jeopardy.

"Joining the communal society of the Amana Colonies isn't what Jancey Rhoder had planned, but when unforseen circumstances force her family to make difficult decisions, she gives up her teaching position in a Kansas City orphanage and moves with her parents to Iowa. Her besotted suitor, Nathan Woodward, is determined to get Jancey to change her mind. And Jancey herself isn't sure what she's gotten herself into when the simple life of the Amana Colonies...