Amish Runaway

Sia Fisher is sixteen and willful – eager to embark on her rumspringa, and to indulge in the everyday pleasures of the world that have been kept from her for years due to her faith. She’s spent a long time plotting, scheming, and dreaming, poring over fashion magazines that promise a fun and colorful life just beyond the borders of her quaint little Amish community.

She wants what all the normal girls her age have, and she wants it now, no matter what it takes to get it…even if that involves a “harmless” bit of lying and manipulation here and there where her parents are concerned. After all, won’t Herr Gott understand her goals, and forgive her methods of achieving them?

Saddled with a daughter who won’t heed their rules or warnings about Englischers, her mother and father can do nothing but pray for her safety, and hope that she ultimately chooses a simple life of piety and restraint once she’s tasted what the outside world has to offer. They, too, rely on Gott’s wisdom and forbearance to make sure that their child stays safe and decides to return to them when the time comes.

Meanwhile, Jonah Burki – a kind, thoughtful, soft-spoken boy who’s known Sia his entire life – believes in his heart that there is a wellspring of goodness and faith in Sia, beneath her shallow and sometimes spiteful surface. He refuses to give up on her, or on the hope that they might one day be husband and wife.

When it’s finally time for Sia’s rumspringa, a handsome young Englischer named Samuel offers to show her everything she’s been missing. He seems like a nice, helpful boy with good intentions…at first.