During the Spring of 1929, a terrible accident changes the life course of Esther Clark, a young teacher in rural Indiana. Hearing a scream, she races out the schoolhouse door, finding six-year-old Willie writhing on the ground, holding his bloody eye. A whirlwind of events carries the unwilling and skeptical Esther through revival meetings by a charismatic traveling evangelist and dumps her in despair when the school board unexpectedly fires her. What's more, her mother shames her into an unlikely marriage that propels her on a cross-country journey which challenges her faith, explores the hardships of poverty and loneliness, and ultimately provides testament to the perseverance of the human spirit.
