Nineteen-year-old Sadie Zook works in her father’s furniture store in their home town of Ephrata, PA. Witty, devout, and supremely competent, Sadie is keeping a secret. Sadie occupies the little spare time she can find with her secret passion -- writing and illustrating her simple and insightful stories about her life in pastoral Lancaster County. While Sadie’s writing is mostly thoughtful and even devotional, Sadie’s wit shows in some of her tales from her father’s store -- sharp delineations of “Englisher” customers whose ignorance of those who choose to live plain lives reveals Sadie’s keen talent for description, dialogue, and character development.
When twenty-one-year-old Abram Byler discovers Sadie’s secret stash of writing, he conceals it, reads it, and is initially horrified and chastises Sadie. As he continues to read, though, he discovers that beneath the clever wit, there is a sweet, nurturing soul revealed in the tender depictions of Sadie’s youngest sisters learning to churn butter. As Abram and Sadie become closer, Abram realizes that sometimes humility means using the talents God bestows.
