An Amish beginning... At age twenty, Joel Umble, future Bishop of Ice Mountain, is strong, wise, and handsome. No wonder nineteen-year-old Martha Yoder has always noticed him. Still, she dares not trust that her dreams of him could become a reality. Where Joel is striking, she is plain. Where he is educated, she's had no time for schooling. Caring for her frail grossmuder and aging parents has taken all the time she might have spent being courted...