"When Karlina Richter discovers that a new shepherd will be sent to her village, she fears that she'll no longer be allowed to help her father with the sheep. She'll be relegated back to kitchen work, stuck inside all day. Her fears increase when the new shepherd shows little interest in the flock -- or in divulging why he's suddenly been sent East. Is he keeping secrets that will impact Karlina's family?" --P. [4] of cover.

Although she's always longed to see the outside world, Johanna Ilg believes her future is rooted in the Amana community inhabited by devout Christians. But when she learns a troubling secret, the world she thought she knew is shattered and she is forced to make difficult choices about a new life and the man she left behind. Berta Schumacher has lived a privileged life in Chicago, and when her parents decide they want a simpler life in Amana, Iowa,...

Gretchen Kohler is an Amana storekeeper's daughter with a secret passion for writing. But artistic pursuits are frowned upon in her conservative Amana village, so she confines her poems and stories to her journals, letting only close friends read them. When a young reporter comes into her store, she believes she's found a kindred spirit. She shares a few of her stories with him--only to have her trust betrayed in the worst of ways, resulting in trouble...

"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...