Esther is an Amish girl who must go to school per Pennsylvania law. She comes from a family who is firm on following the Amish ways, especially after Esther’s older brother Dan went “Away” after the public school exposed him to the worldly temptations. Esther starts out timid and submissive to the way she has grown up, but then she meets Mary, a girl at school who wears pink and her hair in curls. She starts to question why everyone is different as she struggles to make the choice of being friends with Mary or maintaining the Amish ways.