Hester, the Native American who was rescued as an infant by an Amish couple, now lives in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She shares a house with Bappie King, another Amish woman, living their independent lives in the fast-growing mid-18th-century city. Bappie runs a highly successful stand at the downtown farmers market; Hester is Bappie's assistant when she isn't out in the city nursing desperately sick children and their impoverished parents with her tinctures, teas, and rubs. And then one day, Noah comes back; Noah, the first child born to Hans and Kate Zug, the Amish couple who had welcomed Hester during their childless years. Both Hester and Noah are refugees from this Amish family gone awry.